By Kai Uyehara
The Seattle Times
TACOMA, Wash. — Dozens of residents in a Tacoma apartment complex were evacuated after an explosion Sunday afternoon, according to the Tacoma Fire Department.
There was an electrical malfunction that pushed smoke into several buildings, which triggered an automatic alarm, and a resident also pulled the fire alarm, the department said.
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Fire crews responded to the alarm on the 6400 block of South 12th Street after 5:30 p.m. The explosion happened 20 minutes later.
The crews had gone into an electrical room between units on the ground floor of one of the buildings to shut off the power, but that caused an electrical arc to ignite smoke inside the building, creating the explosion, said Tacoma Fire spokesperson Chelsea Shepherd.
That’s not something that should or normally happens, Shepherd said.
No injuries occurred, and there was no active fire, the department said, but crews immediately evacuated residents of 60 units from eight buildings. They were taken to shelter at Hunt Middle School while fire investigators and utility crews tried to figure out what caused the explosion.
Images shared by the department on social media show the debris, including a broken door, destroyed window blinds, a screen door and cans outside of a ground-floor unit.
The local utility later cleared residents to reenter all but one of the units while it worked to restore power, the department said at 10:45 p.m. Sunday. The Red Cross helped the displaced residents.
The cause of the explosion is still under investigation.
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