One killed, 17 hurt in Maryland explosion

Firefighters and police evacuate residents from the Maryland neighborhood where a house exploded Sunday night.

SNOW HILL, Maryland (CNN) -- A gas leak may have caused a house explosion Sunday night that killed one person and injured 17 others, most of them firefighters, officials said.

Snow Hill City firefighters were initially called to the house, a two-story "Cape Cod-type" home, shortly after 5 p.m. because of an odor of gas, said Assistant Fire Chief John Coleman.

Gas company officials were already at the house. The explosion happened 10 minutes later, flattening the house and damaging nearby homes.

Coleman said he thought the person killed was a gas company employee.

Thirteen Snow Hill firefighters and four civilians, including the woman who owned the house, were injured and taken to hospitals, he said.

Two people were in intensive care in serious condition late Sunday at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury and six were at the burn center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore.

The fire caused by the explosion "burned itself out," Coleman said. "The scene's been turned over to the fire marshal and they're doing an investigation right now."

Snow Hill is southeast of Salisbury, about six miles from the coast.