‘VERY SCARY – MY HEAD IS SPINNING’
Residents evacuated, businesses shuttered
The massive steam-pipe explosion that rocked the Flatiron District Thursday forced hundreds of residents from their homes, shuttered prominent businesses and caused a traffic nightmare.
Roughly 500 people were displaced by the 6:40 a.m. blast, and at one point, 49 buildings — including the landmark Flatiron — were evacuated.
The blast also caused a slew of street closures that will continue into Friday, including Fifth Avenue and Broadway from West 23rd to West 17th streets, and crosstown traffic from Sixth Avenue to Broadway between West 23rd and West 17th.
Crystal Johnson, who lives on East 21st Street with her two young children, said she is worried about their health due to potential asbestos exposure.
“I am very angry but I am just trying to keep my composure and be calm,” she told The Post at a school emergency shelter set up by the Red Cross and the city’s Office of Emergency Management.
Asbestos “can give you tumors and block your airway . . . It is very scary. My head is just spinning around and I’m trying to grasp all of this,” she said, comforting daughter Melina, 10, and son Tristen, 6.
Police officers in protective suits entered the area of the heaviest potential contamination to retrieve pets and medication for evacuated residents.
City officials said that as of 6 p.m., 44 buildings were still being inspected for potential exposure to the cancer-causing substance.
Mayor de Blasio at an afternoon press conference said the closures, inspections and evacuations may last up to two days.
An estimated 50 ground-floor businesses and stores either couldn’t open or had to shut their doors. Impacted businesses ranged from popular and eclectic homeware store Fishs Eddy to furniture chain stores like Ethan Allen.
“We understand this is very much still an emergency-response situation,” said Jennifer Brown, the executive director of the Flatiron-23rd Street Partnership. “I know they’re assessing damage to the buildings and environmental issues.”