An apparent gas explosion and fire caused major damage to a nursing home outside Philadelphia on Tuesday, sending emergency crews to conduct search-and-rescue operations, according to officials and local media reports.
No official information on possible casualties was immediately available. Philadelphia television station WCAU, an NBC affiliate, reported there were multiple injuries.
The Bucks County emergency dispatch center received a report of an explosion with injuries at the Silver Lake Nursing Home in Bristol Township, about 21 miles northeast of Philadelphia, shortly after 2 p.m. EST, a county spokesperson said.
"A portion of the building is reported to have collapsed," the spokesperson, Jim O'Malley, said in an email message, adding that emergency personnel from numerous agencies were dispatched.
A front-facing side of the structure appeared to have been blasted away from the inside, but the majority of the facility remained standing, though most of its windows were shattered, according to a Reuters photographer on the scene.
The precise number of patients and staff inside at the time was not immediately known. The nursing home is certified for up to 174 beds, according to an official Medicare provider site.
More than 50 patients, ranging in age from 50 to 95, are typically in the building at any one time, WCAU-TV reported, citing a nurse employed by the facility who arrived on the scene after the blast.
An unspecified number of patients were evacuated from the building afterward by firefighters, police, emergency medical personnel, bystanders and staff, Lieutenant Sean Cosgrove of the Bristol Township Police Department said in an interview with local online news platform LevittownNow.com.
Video posted by a nearby police department showed numerous emergency and law enforcement vehicles converging in the area with lights flashing. News footage from WPVI-TV, an ABC News affiliate, showed flames shooting out of the crippled building shortly after the explosion.
Public broadcaster Channel12Now in Philadelphia reported that first-response personnel arriving on the scene found significant structural damage to the facility, prompting immediate search-and-rescue operations for residents and staff.
The news outlet cited authorities as saying that about 15 nursing home patients were initially accounted for outside the building, while "multiple others remained unaccounted for."
It said rescue teams reported "numerous individuals trapped beneath debris on the second floor, as well as additional victims trapped in the basement area."
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro posted a message on his social media account saying he had been briefed on the incident and that "the scene is still active."
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