Nine people are feared to have been killed and a criminal investigation could be launched after a suspected gas explosion destroyed a block of flats in the centre of Jersey’s capital, St Helier.
After a desperate day of searching among the debris, the island’s chief of police, Robin Smith, confirmed that five people had died but said a further four remained missing, with the mission no longer in rescue mode.
“There are still a number of residents, we are working on the assumption of four, that remain unaccounted for,” Smith said. “Their families were made aware of this announcement before other Islanders. They continue to be supported by special officers.”
He added: “Our equipment and K9s [sniffer dogs] have identified several areas of focus where possible bodies may be located. We continue to search these locations.”
Alongside an effort to identify and recover all of the remains, which Jersey’s fire chief, Paul Brown, said could take weeks, an inquiry has begun into the action of the fire service in the hours before the explosion at 4am on Saturday.
Less than eight hours before the three-storey Haut du Mont apartments on Pier Road were enveloped in a fireball, firefighters were called to the site at 8.36pm on Friday after residents reported a suspected gas leak.
Brown said he would be “transparent” about the events leading up to the explosion and that something had gone “horribly wrong” but would not say whether any members of staff had been suspended.
“I wouldn’t provide information about employment matters on any basis in any scenario,” he said. “That’s not something I would do in an operational context. But my commitment is that our focus now is on the task at hand and the search operation supporting our colleague emergency services and a much wider community. And openness and transparency are absolutely guaranteed.”
When asked whether a criminal inquiry could be launched, Smith, who has led Jersey’s police since 2019, responded: “We rule nothing in and we rule nothing out.”
Smith said all next of kin had been informed and the initial signs were that the blast had been a gas explosion but that this had not been confirmed.
“It looks likely that that is the case,” he said. “But of course, as you often hear the police service say, you know, we keep all our options open. That seems likely, but ‘we do not know’ is a simple answer.”
Footage of the blast showed a giant fireball emerging from the flats by Jersey’s seafront and the apartments were said by Jersey’s police chief to have collapsed “like a pancake”.
Two people who were in hospital on Saturday were discharged, with one other person receiving treatment for non-serious injuries.
Specialist teams from the UK, including the Isle of Wight and Hampshire, have been drafted in to aid the response.
Smith said that the use of sniffer dogs had led them to conclude that there were no further survivors to be found.
He said: “We brought over a number of specialist assets yesterday afternoon, some of which came in chinooks [helicopters]. Thanks to the support, the military, bringing in not only those specialist assets, but also sniffer dogs, to give us the confidence that we need, that we’ve now moved into the recovery phase. So inevitably, tragically, and sadly, that is the case.”
Jersey’s chief minister, Kristina Moore, told reporters at a press conference on Sunday that the wider community of Jersey had been “immensely shocked and saddened” by the incident and the government had been “overwhelmed” by offers of support.
Photographs released by Jersey’s government showed a scene of carnage, with piles of rubble, crushed cars and blown-out windows in neighbouring homes.
Earlier, Moore said she had been woken by the blast. “Across the island you could hear this extraordinary sound,” she said. “It was not quite clear what it was but it certainly woke myself and many people.”
• This article was amended on 12 December 2022 to remove wording indicating that Jersey is part of the UK. It is a self-governing crown dependency.
