Six feared dead after New York City gas explosion causes building collapse

Four people still missing after residents report possible gas leak minutes before a blast caused a building in Harlem to collapse

An explosion caused the swift and entire collapse of two buildings in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York on Wednesday, leaving at least six people dead and over 60 injured.
Smoke poured from the rubble at the site of the incident on Park Avenue as first responders investigated the chaotic scene, next to a commuter train line and a few blocks away from the northern edge of Central Park.
“This is a tragedy of the worst kind because there was no indication in time to save people,” New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
De Blasio said the explosion was caused by a gas leak and that utility company Con Edison was in the process of shutting off all gas lines into the building.
Police said two women believed to be in their 40s were killed, and the mayor’s office later confirmed a third death. The body of an adult male was pulled from the rubble just after midnight on Wednesday and the bodies of an adult female and a male were found among the debris early on Thursday, authorities said.
At least three of the injured were children; one, a 15-year-old boy, was reported in critical condition with burns, broken bones and internal injuries. Most of the other victims’ injuries were minor and included cuts and scrapes.
Hours after the blast, firefighters were still dousing the flames with water, and rescue workers had yet to venture into the debris to search for victims.
Mount Sinai Health System treated at least 23 patients, three of whom were children. “Most injuries were minor injuries: cuts, scrapes, lacerations,” said Dr Kevin Chason, the hospital’s director of emergency management.
The patients walked in on their own and only one patient was critically injured, he said. That patient has head trauma and was found in the rubble.
“The most serious injury we treated was a woman with a head injury that was found in the rubble.” Chason said. “It was critical, but she’s stable.”
More than 250 firefighters were on the scene, working to contain a heavy fire that resulted from the explosion and to conduct search and rescue efforts. De Blasio said that a thorough search would be conducted to find missing people. “This is going to be an extended operation,” he said.
Con Edison received a call from a neighboring building about a possible gas leak at 9.13am. Residents heard a large explosion around 9.30am and the New York fire department received its first call about the incident at 9.31am.“From what we know, the only indication came about 15 minutes earlier when a gas leak was reported to Con Edison,” de Blasio said.
A crew from the utility company arrived just after the explosion occurred.

Firefighters battle a fire after a building collapses in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York. 

Emergency workers and firefighters use a gurney to transport an injured victim from the site of the building collapse. 

The Associated Press reported that a tenant in one of the destroyed buildings, Ruben Borrero, said that residents had complained to the landlord about the smell of gas as recently as Tuesday, a day before the disaster. A few weeks ago, Borrero said, city fire officials were called about the smell, which he said was so bad that a tenant on the top floor broke open the door to the roof for ventilation.
“It was unbearable,” said Borrero, who lived in a second-floor apartment with his mother and sister, all of whom were away at the time of the explosion. “You walk in the front door and you want to turn around and walk directly out.”
The fire department said it was checking its records for any gas complaints at the building. Bob McGee, a spokesman for Con Edison, said a preliminary review found “nothing that indicates there was any call in the immediate past from anyone on that block” before Wednesday.
A National Transportation Safety Board team, which investigates pipeline accidents in addition to transportation disasters, arrived in the evening .

Firefighters work the scene of an explosion that destroyed two apartment buildings in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York.

Firefighters battle a blaze at the site of an explosion and building collapse in New York. 

The tragedy brought the neighborhood to a standstill as police set up barricades to keep residents away. Thick, acrid smoke caused people’s eyes to water. Some wore surgical masks, while others held their hands or scarves over their faces.
Sidewalks for blocks around were littered with broken glass from shattered storefront and apartment windows. Witnesses say the blast, on Park Avenue at 116th Street, was so powerful it knocked groceries off the shelves of nearby stores.
“It felt like an earthquake had rattled my whole building,” said Waldemar Infante, 24, a porter from a nearby residential building who was working in the basement when the explosion occurred. “There were glass shards everywhere on the ground and all the stores had their windows blown out.”
The two destroyed buildings, 1644 and 1646 Park Avenue, were both five-storey brick apartment buildings. One had a piano store on street level, the other a storefront church.
Building department records did not show any work in progress at either address, but the building with the church had obtained permits to install new gas pipes in June.
The Metro-North commuter railroad, which serves 280,000 riders a day in New York and Connecticut, suspended all service to and from Grand Central for much of the day while the debris was removed from its tracks, the structural integrity of the elevated structure was checked, and test trains were run past the explosion site to see if vibrations would endanger the rescue effort. Service resumed late in the afternoon.