photo credit: aapsky // Shutterstock

A gas explosion in downtown Durham on Wednesday morning has killed one person and injured 15 others.

Durham police say a contractor working under a sidewalk hit a 2-inch gas line, triggering the explosion. The building partially collapse and was set on fire.

Jim Rogalski, a Duke University employee who works in an office directly across the street, told the News & Observer that roughly 100 people in the office watched as the explosion blew windows off the side of their building.

“People were sitting at their desks and ceiling tiles were falling,” he told the newspaper. “Stuff flew off shelves. You could barely see for 25 feet from all the dust. People were screaming.”