Explosion at San Diego Hotel Construction Site

There are some big problems in the downtown San Diego waterfront area:

SAN DIEGO -- Thirteen people were injured after an explosion at a building being constructed near the San Diego Convention Center, NBC 7/39 reported.

The San Diego Fire Department received reports of an explosion and collapse at the Bayfront Hilton construction site at 111 West Harbor Drive at about 2 p.m., according to the San Diego Fire Department.

"I live around 20th and K streets and felt the explosion!" a viewer identified at Kel wrote to NBC 7/39. "I heard the loud boom, followed by my house shaking for a few seconds. It felt like an earthquake. Very scary...."

Rescue units were sent to the two-alarm emergency at the high rise, fire officials said. Workers quickly set up a triage area at the site, and a helicopter ambulance was sent to the accident scene to transport victims.

Fire department spokesman Maurice Luque said at least 12 people were injured in the explosion at the waterfront skyscraper. Two of those victims suffered major trauma, he added, and six others were seriously hurt. Three of the injured are believed to have been burned during the incident. At 2:45 p.m., nobody was still believed to be missing, officials told NBC 7/39. Nine of the victims were sent to the UCSD Medical Center, and four went to Scripps Memorial Hospital. Officials at UCSD said the hospital was temporarily turning away other patients while they treated the victims from the explosion site.

Luque said at least four or five floors were damaged by the blast, and possibly several more. He said the damage did not appear to be structural in nature, though experts, of course, would be brought in to assess the extent of the damage. The explosion tore the skin off at least two sides of three of the building's stories and expelled a large amount of broken glass and construction material onto the top floor of a nearby multi-story parking structure.

A construction worker who told NBC 7/39 that he was waiting for friend injured in the blast said that person told him he smelled natural gas before the explosion.

There was a bombing at a San Diego courthouse just a week or so ago, but this doesn't appear to be a deliberate act. That blast was right in the middle of a busy tourist area, so hopefully none of the victims were out-of-towners in for the holiday.