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A thunderous gas blast sparked a seven-alarm fire that injured many and sent choking black smoke billowing into the sky. |
NY TIMES
A powerful explosion in Lower Manhattan on Thursday caused two buildings to collapse and ignited a large fire that quickly spread to neighboring buildings, leaving at least 19 people injured. The explosion erupted less than an hour after Con Edison inspectors had given the owner of the wrecked building a failing grade on a gas pipe installation that was being done in the basement.
The 3:17 p.m. blast occurred at 121 Second Ave. between E.7th St. and St. Marks Ave., which was triggered by construction workers who accidentally ruptured a gas main in a ground-floor restaurant, sources told The NY Post. Four of the injured were firefighters.
The first reports the Fire Department received were for a building collapse, and witnesses described a frantic scene, with residents of the buildings scrambling down fire escapes to escape the raging flames and others dashing out of the rubble as the walls collapsed around them.
Nicholas Figueroa, 23, was in the restaurant in the building where the explosion occurred and was still missing early Friday morning, said his brother Tyler, 19. He said his family had searched the city’s hospitals and sought help from the police but had been unable to locate him.
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| The parents of Nicholas Figueroa who was on a date at the East Village sushi restaurant that exploded Thursday were desperately searching for their son. |
Sources told The Daily News someone inside the sushi restaurant smelled gas and contacted the owner of the building, who then called the plumbing contractor.
When the worker went down into the basement and opened the door “everything exploded,” a source said.
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Over at the Haveli restaurant, a block south of the collapsed building, worker Syed Gilani said the blast shook his building.
“We were working in the back, and we heard an explosion, a big noise - the building kind of shake too,” he said.
Gilani said when he ran outside he saw injured people sprawled on the sidewalk.
“It’s crazy, oh my God,” he said. “You see the flames. I never see in my life. We run outside, and there was a little fire, but then it becomes like a huge fire in the roof.”
Robert Dandrea, a teacher who was coming home from work, said he was Second Ave at 8th St. when he heard the blast.
“The entire building was blown out to the street,” he said of 121 Second Ave. “Four cars had their windows blown out."
Dandrea said that with the wall gone, he could see the fire churning in the basement below.
“People were yelling 'Hurry up! Hurry up! It's spreading quickly,” he said.
Robert Quigley, an artist who has lived at 125 Second Ave. for at least 40 years, got out unharmed but fears his life’s work is lost.