‘Everything fell, the walls, the floor,’ Fort Worth hotel worker describes explosion

A worker at the Sandman Signature Hotel said he was lucky to survive Monday’s explosion inside the kitchen of the Musume Asian fusion restaurant in downtown Fort Worth.

“Everything fell, the walls, the floor, everything,” said Josè Mira, 49, of Dallas, who was covered in dust and had a cut on his arm.

Witnesses described people coming out of the hotel at 810 Houston St. with bloody faces and others on stretchers. People said they had family members in the hotel, and that they were injured.

The explosion occurred shortly before 4 p.m., and a strong odor of natural gas filled downtown an hour later.

Barbara Jacobs, 58, a resident of the Historic Electric Building Apartments at 410 W. Seventh St., said she normally walks by the building on her way home from the bus stop but “something told her not to.”

“When I heard the boom I was in the middle of the street,” she said. “To see it firsthand, oh my God, it was scariest thing I ever seen.”

Kathy Johnson, who lives in a building a half a block from the Sandman, said she and her husband felt the explosion shake the entire street. From their building’s garage, they could see the damage wrought by the explosion: Whole sections of windows blown onto Houston Street, leaving empty frames behind; a hole in the sidewalk on Eighth Street; a covering for a bus stop completely tipped over.

“Just debris everywhere,” Johnson said.

This story was originally published January 8, 2024 at 5:03 PM.

Cody Copeland

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Cody Copeland was an accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He previously reported from Mexico for Courthouse News and Mexico News Daily.