Metro

The winner of today's contest will waste no time joining the fray in Richmond, where the General Assembly is in session; the new senator is expected to take his oath and attend the session tomorrow.

Frederick County House Explodes

---

A house in the Winchester area was severely damaged last night in an explosion that also damaged nearby houses and burned one man, authorities said.

The blast occurred about 8 p.m. in Stephens City, according to the Frederick County, Va., sheriff's office. The injured man, who apparently was an occupant of the house where the blast occurred, was flown to a burn center. His condition was not immediately known.

One neighbor said that the house where the blast apparently occurred was destroyed. "That house was gone," she said.

The sheriff's office in the county, about 60 miles west of Washington, said no cause had been determined. Two neighbors said they thought natural gas might have been involved. Tim Sargeant, a spokesman for Washington Gas, said his company found no evidence last night of underground gas leaks around the house.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

---

"We send a lot of money home, and . . . we need a voice over there. We're investing in our home towns -- buying housing, building roads and other projects -- and we'd like to see a good mayor we can trust."

-- U.S. Salvadoran Chamber of Commerce President Andreas "Elmer" Arias, on an Arlington activist's bid to run his home town in El Salvador. -- A1

Compiled from reports by staff writers V. Dion Haynes, Karlyn Barker, Ernesto Londoño, Nick Anderson, Steven Ginsberg, Amy Gardner, Allan Lengel and Martin Weil and the Associated Press.