Baltimore explosion: Aerial footage shows zone of destruction

Neighbours said they could hear children calling out from beneath rubble

Aerial footage from the site of a gas explosion in Baltimore that levelled three houses and has left at least one person dead revealed a zone of destruction and debris left in the blast's wake.

The footage shows firefighters preparing a gurney on the street adjacent to the destroyed houses. Debris lays at their feet, the chunks of the homes growing in both size and number as the drone pans right and reveals the site of the explosion.

A white car is speckled with fragments of the building, and a group of firefighters standing near the edge of the property surveying the destruction are dwarfed by the mass of detritus.

Beams and boards are piled high on the mound of wreckage that survived the explosion. A pair of white window frames and an orange spineboard brought by the rescuers breaks up the sea of brown wood and grey concrete making up the bulk of the rubble.

A group of firefighters is amongst the rubble, digging under what appears to be a sloping section of roof that sits higher than the surrounding wreckage.

From the air, the dozen or so firefighters clambering over and about the rubble resemble a troop of ants picking a bone clean of its meat. Their frenzied effort to clear the rubble is a race against time to find and save anyone who might be buried by the remnants of the house.

On the other side of the debris pile, a different group of rescuers has set up an assembly line, passing bits of brick and stone and wood from one person to the next along the shattered remains of the roof.

The explosion left one woman dead and at least two others with serious injuries.

Kevin Matthews, who lives nearby, arrived at the scene around 10am and told the Baltimore Sun he could hear cries from children trapped beneath the rubble.

"Come get us! We're stuck!" they yelled.

When he approached the site, he saw the totality of the destruction.

"I could see the back alley from the front stoop," he said. "We decided to move out of the way and let the firemen handle it."

Blair Adams, the Public Information Officer for the Baltimore City Fire Department, described the complexities of the rescue.

"It's a labour-intensive rescue," she said. "You have homes that were pretty much crumbled ... a ton of debris on the ground, so we're pulling and trying to comb through to see if we can find any additional occupants."

An important element of the rescue is ensuring that there's no chance another explosion will tear through the neighbourhood, especially while hundreds of first responders are on scene digging for survivors.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Company spokesman Richard Yost told the Baltimore Sun that the energy company was working to secure the site and ensure the gas was turned off.

"We are on the scene and working closely with the fire department to make the situation safe," Mr Yost said. "Crews are working to turn off gas to the buildings in the immediate area. Once the gas is off we can begin to safely assess the situation including inspections of BGE equipment."

The state's governor, Larry Hogan, issued a statement on Twitter Monday afternoon concerning the explosion.

"We are closely monitoring the situation in northwest Baltimore following this morning's horrific explosion," he wrote. "We have reached out to offer our full support to the ongoing response and recovery efforts, and are deeply grateful to the first responders on the scene."