DALLAS (AP) — Authorities are searching Friday for more potential victims of an explosion and massive fire that destroyed a Dallas apartment building and killed at least three people as firefighters rushed to the site of a reported gas leak.
The explosion Thursday afternoon shook nearby homes and the resulting inferno razed the two-story complex. A child and two other people were killed and at least five people were injured and sent to hospitals, Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesperson Jason Evans said.
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Officials stand near rubble following an apartment complex fire, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Officials stand near rubble following an apartment complex fire, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Trish Thompson looks over a fence at the damage left behind following an apartment complex fire not far from where she lives, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A vehicle is seen damaged following an apartment complex fire, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
It was unclear how many residents lived in the complex in the Oak Cliff neighborhood south of downtown Dallas, where a towering plume of black smoke was visible for miles immediately after the explosion.
Several blocks of streets around the explosion site were still closed off by police cars and police tape on Friday morning. Law enforcement officials and workers in bright yellow vests could be seen around the rubble of what was once the apartment building. The odor of the fire still hung over the area as investigators searched through the charred wreckage. Authorities maintained a security perimeter of several blocks around the site, and several fire trucks and police vehicles were still on scene.
The Associated Press reached out to Dallas Fire-Rescue for updates on fatalities and the number of people still missing.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Friday it was sending a team to investigate. The agency investigates gas pipeline accidents, but did not immediately respond to an email requesting more details.
Evans did not rule out that more victims could be found as crews sifted through the charred remains. By late Thursday, Evans said firefighters had searched less than half of the scene by hand and that some areas would require excavation.
Dallas Fire-Rescue Deputy Chief Mark Berry said firefighters were responding to a call of a gas leak when the explosion happened.
“We had the cavalry coming,” Berry said. “But the explosion had already taken place.”
Atmos Energy, a natural gas provider, said in a statement they were told by fire officials that a construction crew unrelated to the company had damaged a pipeline near the site of the fire. The company did not provide further details.
Natural gas service to the area remained shut off, and company officials were working with investigators on-site, the company said.
Sherry Woods, who lives in an apartment across an alleyway from the fire site, said Friday she was sitting outside her front door when she and her boyfriend smelled what they believed to be gas.
Moments later, the explosion nearly knocked her down.
“All you heard was ‘boom.’ I shook like something was hitting me. It was scary to hear something like that. I felt the building shake,” Woods said.
Authorities set up a family reunification center at a nearby high school. Several hours after the blaze, Frances Rizo was still trying to find her friend who lived in the building.
“She’s not answering her phone,” Rizo said.
Trish Thompson surveyed the site from across a grassy field Friday morning and could see the gap on the block where the apartment complex stood just 24-hours earlier.
Thompson, who lives nearby, described hearing a “loud rumble, something more like a train to me” and seeing smoke and fire.
“Pray for them,” Thompson said.
Associated Press journalist Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, contributed.
Officials stand near rubble following an apartment complex fire, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Officials stand near rubble following an apartment complex fire, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Trish Thompson looks over a fence at the damage left behind following an apartment complex fire not far from where she lives, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A vehicle is seen damaged following an apartment complex fire, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to answer questions Friday on Donald Trump's involvement in the release of case files on Jeffrey Epstein as she defended the administration's actions before House lawmakers scrutinizing a process that was delayed and included personal information of potential victims.
Bondi, who arrived Friday morning on Capitol Hill for her closed-door interview, was defiant in previous public testimony when she was confronted by lawmakers about the Epstein investigation. In her opening statement, she kept to the same tack.
“The bottom line is: justice and transparency in this matter have been delivered at the direction of President Trump and his administration,” she said, according to a written copy of her opening statement.
The transcribed Bondi interview gave lawmakers a chance to dig for information on the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files and other related matters, including the prison sentence of Epstein's former girlfriend and confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell.
But Democratic lawmakers said that Bondi told them she would not speak about the president in the interview and, accompanied by a lawyer from the Department of Justice, cited her ability to decline questions because she agreed to appear before the committee voluntarily.
“It's a sham in there. They are not answering any questions,” said Democratic Rep. Dave Min during a break in the interview.
Epstein killed himself in a New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in 2021 of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein but has insisted she’s innocent, arguing she never should have been prosecuted. The Justice Department moved Maxwell from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas last August.
Lawmakers are trying to find out what decisions prosecutors have made about investigating Epstein associates, how the Justice Department handled the congressional mandate to release the Epstein case files and whether President Donald Trump was involved in the process.
Bondi told lawmakers in her opening statement that then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is now the acting attorney general, had overseen the process to release the Epstein case files as mandated by a law passed by Congress and signed by Trump last year.
She called it “an enormously complicated and labor-intensive process” and conceded that the department had made redaction errors. But she mostly defended the Justice Department's work, saying that it had complied with the law and demonstrated “an unprecedented commitment to transparency.”
Several survivors of Epstein's abuse also gathered outside the Capitol office where the interview was taking place. They tried to make their presence known to Bondi as she entered the room, but several said they were shoved aside by police officers.
“We hope that she finds it in her heart to be completely honest,” said Marina Lacerda, one of the survivors. “That's all we're asking for.”
The survivors also implored lawmakers to hold Bondi accountable for the handling of the Epstein case files' release, which included the personal information of potential victims.
They confronted the committee chair, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, and he told them that he would press for the complete release of case files mandated by law.
“We want justice for the survivors, we do,” Comer added.
Bondi, who revealed this week that she is being treated for thyroid cancer, has stayed within the Republican president's orbit even after being ousted from her job in early April.
Trump appointed Bondi to a White House panel on artificial intelligence this week, and she will be accompanied Friday by Justice Department officials, including Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the department's Civil Rights Division, acting as her counsel.
Democrats say that arrangement is a conflict of interest.
Bondi has been central to the political firestorm over Epstein, initially raising expectations for the full release of what's known as the Epstein files, only to later backtrack. That reversal prompted Congress to step in and pass a law requiring the release.
Bondi faced even more backlash when the Justice Department's release of the files was delayed and then included personal information and nude photos of several potential victims. She has insisted in congressional hearings that she was trying to follow the law.
The House Oversight Committee, meanwhile, has been conducting a wide-ranging investigation into Epstein that spans multiple presidential administrations.
Bondi was subpoenaed by the committee in March in a bipartisan vote, but she tried to head off that demand by holding a closed-door meeting with lawmakers that month. The maneuver only added to the enmity between Bondi and Democrats on the committee.
Bondi's departure from the Justice Department also raised doubts about the enforcement of the congressional subpoena. After the committee's Democrats maneuvered to press for a civil contempt of Congress resolution against Bondi, she agreed to sit for a transcribed interview rather than a sworn deposition.
Democrats on the Oversight panel have criticized that arrangement, saying that it allows Bondi to decline to answer questions. They also objected to Comer's decision not to video the interview.
“We continue to be incredibly disappointed of the decision to not have this interview videotaped and then released to the American public,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the panel.
Comer has said he is allowing Bondi to sit for a transcribed interview rather than a deposition as an incentive to cooperate. Previously, he had enforced a subpoena on former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after they resisted the demand. Both of their depositions were video-recorded.
Still, Comer said Bondi could face prosecution if she lies to Congress. He said the committee would also release a transcript of the interview.
Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.
Follow the AP's coverage of the Jeffrey Epstein case at https://apnews.com/hub/jeffrey-epstein.
Robert Garcia, D-Calif., House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking member, speaks to reporters as Sharlene Rochard, victim of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse, right, listens before the start of a hearing for the deposition of former Attorney General Pam Bondi at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Ceneta)
James Comer, R-Ky., the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman, from left, addresses Sharlene Rochard and Dani Bensky, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, as he speaks to reporters before the start of the deposition of former Attorney General Pam Bondi at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Ceneta)
James Comer, R-Ky., House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman, speaks to reporters before the start of the deposition of former Attorney General Pam Bondi at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Ceneta)
Victims of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse, from left, Liz Stein, Dani Bensky, Sharlene Rochard, Marina Lacerda and Andrea Sterling, are seen before former Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives for her deposition at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Ceneta)
Victims of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse, from left, Marina Lacerda, Andrea Sterling, Dani Bensky, speaking, Liz Stein and Sharlene Rochard, before former Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives for her deposition at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Ceneta)
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi, center, arrives for her deposition at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives for her deposition at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Ceneta)
Victims of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse, from left, Marina Lacerda, Andrea Sterling, Dani Bensky, speaking, Liz Stein and Sharlene Rochard, before former Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives for her deposition at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Ceneta)
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi, center, arrives for her deposition at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives for her deposition at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Ceneta)
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives for her deposition at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Ceneta)
FILE - Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 11, 2026, in front of survivors of convicted sex offended Jeffrey Epstein. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner, File)
FILE - Attorney General Pam Bondi faces questions in the House Judiciary Committee over the Justice Department's handling of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
