Gas explosion rocks house in Bronx

A GAS explosion blew out windows and the back door of a Bronx home — a half-block from where an FDNY battalion chief died in a pot grow house blast, fire officials said Friday.

The explosion at the home on W. 234th St. in Kingsbridge happened at about 5:15 p.m. Thursday, police said.

“I was upstairs and heard the noise — it sounded like a house collapsed,” said Robert Mihalko, 61, who lives across the street. “I could feel our doors and windows rattle.”

Nobody was inside when the blast occurred. Neighbors said the woman who lives in the home left her stove on when she stepped out to buy cigarettes.

Con Edison and FDNY crews were investigating the cause of the blast Friday. The utility was in the neighborhood to fix a gas leak a week earlier, neighbors said.

FDNY Chief Michael Fahy lost his life when he was struck by flying debris from a gas explosion in a marijuana grow house on the same street last year.

Fahy, a 17-year veteran, was on the street directing operations the morning of Sept. 27 when he was struck in the head by fragments flung from a two-story home.

Another 20 people, including nine firefighters and six police officers, suffered minor injuries as the blast scattered pot plants, roof shingles, wood and brick into the street and adjoining homes.

The two men who ran the drug den, Garivaldi Castillo, 32, and Julio Salcedo, 34, were indicted on manslaughter charges in June.

It looks like a bomb went off at this house in Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, but the damage was actually caused by a gas explosion on Thursday, fire officials said.