Firefighter killed in explosion after reports of gas leak
NEW YORK — A Fire Department battalion chief was killed and at least a dozen other people were injured in an explosion Tuesday morning that destroyed a two-story house in the Bronx being investigated as a place where marijuana was being grown, New York City officials said.
The chief, Michael J. Fahy, a 17-year veteran of the department, was one of several emergency workers who responded to a 6:20 a.m. call about a gas leak at the building in the Kingsbridge neighborhood, the officials said.
When firefighters arrived at the building, on West 234th Street, they saw what they thought could be materials used in drug production inside the house and called police, officials said. The firefighters also smelled gas. The explosion occurred about 7:30 a.m.
Speaking at a news conference at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Allen Pavilion in Manhattan on Tuesday morning, Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said Fahy was directing operations on the street when he was struck by debris from the blast. The other people injured were also outside the house, he said.
Nigro said Fahy, 44, a father of three young children, was “a rising star” of the department.
Fahy had followed his own father, also a battalion chief, into the department, Nigro added.
The last death in the line of duty for the Fire Department was in 2014, according to the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York.
Firefighters, police officers and workers from the utility Consolidated Edison were among those hurt, Nigro said, adding that none of the injuries were life-threatening.
Police received a tip in the last few weeks about a house on West 234th Street being used to grow marijuana, Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill said at the news conference.