Motel guests jumped out of windows and lowered themselves to the ground using bedsheets to escape fire from an explosion apparently caused by a natural-gas leak that killed four and injured 10. A night desk clerk was investigating reports of a gas leak at the 62-unit Super 8 Motel when the explosion occurred early Sunday, officials said. ``I had just gotten up to go to the bathroom and had come back and my wife said, `Don't you smell the gas?''' said Neal Woodrick, 60, of Trenton, N.J. ``And then it happened.'' ``It sounded just like a bomb had gone off _ boom,'' said his wife, Joan Woodrick, 58. Fire officials were to comb the charred remains of the motel today for clues to the explosion. All of the 45 to 50 guests were believed to be accounted for, authorities said. Firefighters used a crane, pitch forks and shovels to sift through piles of charred mattresses, carpet, pink insulation and dry wall left from the fire and explosion, which threw debris as far as 300 feet from the building. ``I'm almost positive it was a natural gas explosion,'' Hagerstown Fire Chief Gary Hawbaker said. ``The whole front of the building _ first, second and third floors _ was blown out. That whole chunk was engulfed.'' Hawbaker said there was a natural gas line in the middle of the fire, ``so we couldn't put out the rest of the fire until the gas was shut off.'' It took firefighters about 30 minutes to shut off the gas, he said. Joan Ganje-Fischer, a spokeswoman for Super 8 Motels Inc. of Aberdeen, S.D., said that after a guest told the clerk that gas was leaking from the laundry room area, the gas company told the clerk to try to turn the gas off. ``He was right in the center of the explosion when it happened,'' she said. ``He came back to the front desk and his hair was on fire. He put his hair out with a towel, pulled the alarm notifying the guests, called 911 and then began evacuating the motel.'' Donald Lee, 39, of Shorewood, Wis., said he awoke, put on pants, a shirt and a coat and jumped 12-15 feet out of a second-story window, breaking his wrist in the fall. ``I heard screaming and glass breaking,'' he said. ``A number of people saw flames. A family had their hair singed.'' Some guests were moved to a motel across the street, and the Red Cross provided food, clothing and shelter. The dead were identified as James G. Scharnek, 34, of Milwaukee, Wis.; Kristoddie Brown, 25, of Capital Heights; Mercedes Keyes, 26, of Hagerstown; and Margretta E. Parker, 70, of Richmond, Va. Ten people were treated at Washington County Hospital for smoke inhalation and minor injuries and were released, spokesman John Costopoulos said.
A natural - gas leak caused an explosion early morning at a three - story Super 8 Motel in Phoenix . A guest told the night clerk gas was leaking from the laundry room area . The gas company told the clerk to shut the gas off , which he was attempting when the explosion occurred . He pulled the alarm and called 911 . People jumped from windows and lowered themselves using bedsheets . Two were killed and ten treated for smoke inhalation and minor burns . The explosion threw debris 300 feet and blew out the building 's front . The fire could n't be put out until the gas line was shut off .