USA: Rescuers continue to search for the missing after a gas explosion leveled two apartment buildings in Manhattan

Record ID: 216492

  • Title: USA: Rescuers continue to search for the missing after a gas explosion leveled two apartment buildings in Manhattan
  • Date: 13th March 2014
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF BULLDOZER AT THE SCENE (SOUNDBITE) (English) FLOWDAK, LIVES NEAR NEIGHBORHOOD, SAYING: "I hope some of the families are okay and my condolences to the one weren't okay. Let's keep our prayers alive." VARIOUS OF WORKERS AND RUBBLE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHRISTOPHER HARRISON, LIVES IN NEIGHBORHOOD, SAYING: "When I even came home last night, they was still removi
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA532WX0RRKSBKUYECWKUVAKWHT
  • Story Text: Search crews picked through still-smoldering rubble on Thursday (March 13), looking for survivors of a gas explosion that caused the collapse of two New York apartment buildings a day earlier, killing seven people and injuring about 60.
    Facing thick smoke and bitter cold, dozens of firefighters, police officers and a team from the National Transportation Safety Board were at the Upper Manhattan scene to determine what had caused the explosion on Wednesday, shortly after a resident nearby had called the utility, Con Edison, to complain about the smell of gas. The safety board investigates accidents involving natural gas.
    Five people remained missing on Thursday morning, New York Police Detective Martin Speechley said.
    Mayor Bill de Blasio met with first responders as heavy-duty evacuation equipment, including a machine known as "the grappler," moved rubble that was being hosed down by fire trucks.
    The debris continued to flare up at times as rescuers clawed through the wreckage of the adjoining buildings that had housed 15 apartments on a largely residential block at East 116th Street and Park Avenue.
    People who live in the neighborhood and witnessed the explosion were still rattled a day later.

    "You know what I was around for 9-11. I was close to it when 9-11 happened and for something like this to happen I can understand why people are still shaken and rattled just by all of this. But they thought it was an actual bomb," said neighborhood resident Christopher Harrison.

    "I mean it exploded and then it just came down like a deck of cards," he added.
    The mayor said a preliminary investigation indicated the explosion in East Harlem was caused by a gas leak.

    "I'm like how did they let that happen? Because they had problems in June. So what's going on? What is the city doing? I mean what's going on?" said frustrated resident Eldia Duran.
    The last complaint about a gas odor in the neighborhood was in May, said Consolidated Edison Inc spokesman Bob McGee.
    At the time, Con Ed shut the gas off and the building had hired its own contractor to fix a leak. On July 3, Con Ed crews returned to the building to certify the repairs were done correctly, McGee said.
    Amid a return to frigid temperatures, about 69 people who had to vacate their nearby homes on Wednesday due to smoke took shelter overnight at a school, said the Red Cross and the Office of Emergency Management.

    "It's a tragedy because nobody expected this. It was a sudden death. That's what they faced. And with the weather, it made it even worse. But God be with them," said Denise, who lives in the neighborhood.

    "I hope some of the families are okay and my condolences to the one weren't okay. Let's keep our prayers alive," added a man called Flowdak.
    Four women and three men were killed in the collapse of the buildings. One victim was identified as Griselde Camacho, a public safety officer for Hunter College in East Harlem, according to a message on the school's website.
    Most of the 60 people wounded suffered from cuts, broken bones or smoke inhalation, police said.
    At least three children were among those hurt. Two were treated for minor injuries and released, while a third was in critical condition, hospital officials said at a news conference.
    The blast leveled the apartment buildings, located above a ground-floor church and a piano store, sending a cascade of twisted and burnt metal on to the sidewalk and burying parked cars.
    Christopher Harrison added, "When I even came home last night, they was still removing the rubble. They had cadaver dogs looking for bodies. I mean it was just... the whole scene - it was something like out of a disaster movie, if you could only image it."
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