harlem building explosion

**blugiant** · 03-12-2014, 06:41 PM

wow

mii condolences

**blugiant** · 03-12-2014, 07:11 PM

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1719053.1394641275!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/nyc-explosion.jpg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1719097.1394642923!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/article-explosion24-0312.jpg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1718977.1394638835!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/building-explosion.jpg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1718886.1394636343!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/article-explosion11-0312.jpg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1718883.1394636214!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/article-explosion10-0312.jpg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1718845.1394634610!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/explosion-east-harlem.jpg

**blugiant** · 03-12-2014, 07:24 PM

Underground gas explosion in East Harlem kills 3, injures dozens — up to 10 people feared missing: sources

‘It’s a tragedy of the worst kind,’ Mayor de Blasio says Wednesday near Park Ave. and E. 116th St. Up to 10 people were still missing from the two buildings that contained 15 apartments, Absolute Piano and Spanish Christian Church, an NYPD source said. One of the victims was identified by sources as Griselde Camacho, 44, who lived at 1644 Park Ave.

They were picking through the wreckage and searching for survivors Wednesday after a thunderous gas blast in East Harlem levelled two buildings and sent “people flying.”

Two women and a third person were killed and three dozen other people were injured — some of them children, one of them critically.

The buildings collapsed with such force it shattered windows a block away and registered on the seismic scale at Columbia University, which measures earthquake activity in and around New York City.

“It felt like the world shook,” said witness Mustafa Shohataa, 27, who was standing near the buildings at Park Ave. and East 116th St.

Dozens of firefighters and cops combed through the ruins hoping to find the dozen of so people still unaccounted — working fast to beat the powerful rainstorm and freezing temperatures forecasters said were heading for the city.

In an ominous sign, they were joined by police with cadaver dogs trained to find human remains.

Meanwhile, the first of the victims was identified by sources as Griselde Camacho, 44, who lived at 1644 Park Ave., one of the ruined buildings.

Camacho, who worked as a public safety officer at Hunter College, was badly burned and died of her injuries, the sources said.

Her 67-year-old mother, Carmen Quinones, was among the injured, sources said.

The name of the two other fatalities were not yet released.

The calamity churned up horrible memories for many New Yorkers of the Sept. 11 attacks.

One scene seemed to be a sad replay from that terrible day — the sight of terrified people scouring city hospitals for missing loved ones.

“It’s very stressful because we don’t know anything since 9 a.m.,” said 24-year-old Montserrat Acevedo, who had already been to four hospitals in search of her brother-in-law Jordy Salas. “We’re trying to reach him.”

Salas, 23, lived on the second floor of the ruined 1644 Park Ave. building. And if he was at home at the time of the blast, he didn’t have a chance to escape.

“There was no warning in advance,” said Mayor de Blasio, who added that the cause of the blast that also flattened 1646 Park Ave. appears to be a gas leak. “It’s a tragedy of the worst kind because there was no indication.”

Flanked by Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, whose district office is less than a block from the blast, de Blasio said they will continue searching until everybody is found.

De Blasio also vowed to investigate reports from residents that they had been smelling gas for days.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are also on the scene because nearby train tracks were affected the blast.

Witnesses told The Daily News they saw flames inside the Absolute Piano store at 1646 Park Ave. just before the explosion.

Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano said it will be a while before they can confirm that.

“Right now they can't get anywhere near where the source of ignition was," he said as heavy trucks arrived to clear the pile of debris where the two five-story buildings once stood. “But once we get through the debris and rubble we will get down to that basement and see where we think it was ignited."

Jessica Ortega watched helplessly as 250 firefighters doused the last of the flames and brought in powerful lights as the search went into the night. Salas was her brother-in-law too and she feared the worst.

“We are very worried,” she said. “We don't know what happened to him."

Tulio Gomez said her friend, Andrea Pogapoulos, also lived in one of the blown up buildings.

“He’s not answering his phone," Gomez said of Pogapoulos, who is 41-years-old and owns his own advertising agency. “We don’t know anything.”

Sarah Borrero, who lived at 1646 Park Ave., said everything she owned is now “rubble.”

“I remember this building that was standing up,” she said. “I can still see it in my mind. And now it's not standing."

Borrero said she is just thankful her 16-year-old daughter, Kimberly, was at school when the building exploded.

"We're holding up," she said. "I'm just glad my family is alive."

The Spanish Christian Church occupied the ground floor at 1644 Park Ave. and was listed in records as the owner of that building.

The blast also damaged the Park 95 Deli two doors down, which is owned by Jordanian immigrant Qusai Hezimeh.

“All the windows were blown out,” said Hezimeh, 32. “Everything was turned upside down in the store. It was pitch black inside. It was as if a bucket of snad were dropped on the building.”

Hundreds of people who live near the site were evacuated and it was not clear when they would be allowed back into their homes. City inspectors were checking them for damage and to see if they were habitable.

As the day wore on, some remarkable tales of survival also emerged from the rubble.

Colin Paterson, who lived in the back of the piano store where he has worked for ten years, said he was saved from being crushed by, of all things, the pianos.

“I was in a miraculous cocoon,” said Paterson. “The blast sent pianos up into the air and onto their sides.”

Mark Ripatti, co-owner of the store, also was not hurt, his worried sister reported from their native Finland.

“He’s alive, he’s okay, he called this morning,” Laila Ripatti told The Daily News.

Most of the injured were taken with minor injuries to Harlem Hospital and Mount Sinai Medical Center. The worst off was a 15-year-old in critical condition at Mount Sinai.

Among the injured were two FBI Agents who happened to be in the area, FBI Spokesman Chris Sinos said.

“The agent’s injuries are not life threatening and they are expected to make a full recovery,” Sinos said.

A source said they were driving by when the buildings fell on their car.

“It was not driveable," the source said. “It looked like it was from the World Trade Center."

In Washington, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-Harlem), said he called the calamity “our community’s 9/11.”

“What 9/11 was to the world, this is to me,” he said. “It's my Congressional district.”

The White House said President Obama had been briefed on the situation.

The first sign that something was amiss came at 9:13 a.m., when residents called Con Ed and reported a gas smell, officials said.

Eighteen minutes later, the earth shook and storefronts shattered.

“When I heard the boom, I thought it was an earthquake, then I started seeing the smoke,” said Adga Toure, 34, who lives nearby.

Seconds later the buildings crumbled and suddenly apartments were laid bare. Everything from furniture and clothes to toys were tossed out into the street and covered with a fine powder.

Justine Rodriguez, who was asleep in her apartment at 1652 Park Ave., said the blast blew out her windows.

“I woke up and there was debris and a white cloud and chunks of the building falling around me,” she said. “I didn't know what really was going on. I grabbed my cat and ran down the stairs.”

First responders were already on the way and narrowly avoided being caught by the blast.

“If we were here five minutes earlier we may have had some fatalities among firefighters,” Cassano said. “Not being here may have saved some lives.”

Con Edison spokeswoman Elizabeth Matthews said their workers “arrived just after the explosion occurred,” Matthews said.

Ashley Rivera, 21, said an odor of gas had lingered on the block for weeks. But when the blast happened, suddenly it was a horror show.

"We saw people flying out of the windows. Those are my neighbors," said Rivera, holding back tears.

Angelica Aguiler, 25, said she was asleep in the sixth-floor apartment of one of the wrecked buildings.

“The window exploded,” she said. “I was trying to get out but the door wouldn't open. I called my stepmom and told her I was trapped. I couldn't get out!"

The stepmom, Melinda Cruz, 42, said she reached Aguilar by racing in through the back of the collapsing building.

“I got to her and opened the door,” she said. “I hugged her.”

Watching from across the street, 58-year-old Anthony Ferguson said he saw a man run into one of the burning buildings — and then be violently ejected onto the street by the force of the blast.

“He flew back!” said Ferguson.

Mitch Abreu, 23, was working at Milciades Barbershop nearby when he said he heard two explosions that shook the shop.

"It was loud, like boom, boom!" he said. "It rocked the whole block. A window blew out of the other shop down the street. It looked like the towers all over again. People covered in dust and covering their mouths.

Aisha Watts said she was in the bathroom at 1652 Park Ave. when she heard the blast and suddenly there was sunshine spilling into the apartmet.

“We have no windows, no walls,” she said.

Rubble from the destroyed buildings sent up a cloud of dust that coated this stretch of Park Ave. and much of the surrounding neighborhood.

“It was a big hole in the middle of the two buildings!” said Sam Krebs, 24. “A big cloud of smoke covered where the building used to be.”

Metro-North service to and from Grand Central Terminal was suspended in both directions as workers removed glass rom the blast that littered the tracks.

Some of the tracks were later reopened and limited service resumed.

The MTA said 4, 5, and 6 trains were slowed to a crawl due to concerns about "vibrations" from the collapse.

Alerted by the city, the ASPCA came by the Red Cross reception center at Public School 57 with food for the four dogs that escaped with their owners.

“They’re fine,” said Terri Ciaramello. “It’s the people who left pets behind that are the main concern right now.”

Page not found – New York Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/building-collapse-harlem-article-1.1718814

harlem building explosion

harlem building explosion

Comment

Comment

Comment

ads