WILMINGTON, N.C.—A brand new veterinary hospital exploded Tuesday morning in North Carolina after a car crashed into a nearby gas meter, authorities said.
About 20 minutes before the explosion in Wilmington, a car had run off the road and hit the gas lines that feed into the Eastern Carolina Veterinary Medical Center, which was still under construction, Wilmington Police Department spokesperson Greg Willett said at a news conference. The crash was a hit and run, as the driver had fled the scene in their vehicle before police arrived, he said.
The building had been quickly evacuated, and while firefighters were searching the building to make sure everyone got out, it exploded, said Wilmington Fire Department spokesperson Rebekah Thurston at the news conference. Three firefighters were injured and subsequently hospitalized—two with non-life-threatening injuries and another with severe burns to their hands and arms, Thurston said….