2nd & HELL
19 hurt, 1 missing as blast levels E. Village buildings
A FIVE-STORY East Village building was reduced to ruins, and two others partially collapsed Thursday after a thunderous gas blast sparked a seven-alarm fire that left one man missing, injured at least 19 people and sent choking black smoke billowing into the sky.
Two people were critically injured by the explosion that also set a fourth building on fire and erupted less than an hour after Con Edison inspectors gave one of the buildings a failing grade on a gas pipe installation being done in the basement.
No one was initially reported killed, but the family of Nicholas Figueroa was frantic early Friday because they hadn’t been able to locate the 23-year-old man. Figueroa had been on a date at the Sushi Park restaurant, his family said, adding they were told his date was taken to Bellevue Hospital.
“Right now we don’t really know what to do, we’re just praying,” said Figueroa’s father, Nick Figueroa. “I don’t know what to do. I’m gonna go crazy if my son is not here.”
Officials, including Mayor de Blasio, said early indications were no one had died. But Figueroa’s family said a police officer told them five people were missing. Police would not confirm that early Friday.
The explosion and resulting inferno turned a busy block on Second Ave. near E. Seventh St. into a war zone and brought the building next door to the ground.
In the terrifying aftermath, stunned survivors spilled out of the burning buildings, some blinded by the smoke, and many slipping on the rain-slickened and debrisstrewn pavement.
“I saw a man running out with his hair singed,” said Chloe Kekovic, who works at a nearby barbecue joint. “He was screaming and unable to see.”
Meanwhile, one brave soul — identified by witnesses as an off-duty firefighter — scaled the fire escape of 121 Second Ave. and started kicking in the windows to get to whoever might have been trapped inside.
But as the flames devouring the buildings grew more intense and started spreading, the would-be rescuer beat a hasty retreat and joined the others running away from the flames.
Ataur Rahman, who manages the Dallas BBQ near St. Marks Place, said he feared dozens were dead from the “huge blast.”
“The entire storefront came completely out onto the street,” he said. “I ran toward the blast. Two people were lying in the street. They looked like they were already dead. Two other people were sitting on the sidewalk covered in blood.”
Minutes later, cops and firefighters arrived as disoriented workers from the wrecked sushi restaurant on the ground floor — their faces blackened by smoke — were led to safety by passersby.
“There were three bloody guys in the street. Two were restaurant workers,” said witness Ben MacKinnon, who watched the drama unfold from a nearby cafe.
The third guy was an older man with tattoos who was “screaming for his mother,” he said. “Half of his
face was bloodied up.”
Stuart Lipsky, who lives at 125 Second Ave., escaped with his cat Muffin, but his other cat, Rice, was still missing.
“I ran in when everyone else was running out to grab my cats,” he said. “I grabbed one. The other one was too fast for me.”
Two victims were rushed to the burn unit at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, where they were in critical condition.
A man was taken to Bellevue Hospital and was in serious condition. Another man was brought there in fair condition, officials said. Three others were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with minor injuries.
And four people were treated at the scene as hundreds of firefighters battled the blaze that spread to 119 Second Ave. amid fears that it, too, could collapse.
Earlier, officials worked to ease fears at the frightening scene.
“Preliminary evidence suggests a gas-related explosion,” said de Blasio. “That investigation is ongoing. The initial impact appears to have been caused by plumbing and gas work that was occurring inside 121 Second Ave.”
The fiery disaster then spread to buildings at 119, 123 and 125 Second Ave., the mayor said.
Office of Emergency Management chief Joseph Esposito urged neighborhood residents to stay inside.
“We have concerns about the air,” he said. “Keep your windows closed and limit your time outside.”
One of the 250 firefighters who battled the fire was taken off in a stretcher, but he didn’t appear to be badly hurt. Three other firefighters suffered minor injuries.
Investigators said the blast was sparked beneath the ground-floor sushi restaurant of 121 Second Ave., where workers were installing the gas pipe.
The building owner was trying to upgrade from a smaller to a larger pipe, but inspectors gave it a failing grade because it didn’t provide enough space for a new meter, Con Ed spokesman Mike Clendenin said.
So while Con Ed did not turn on the gas for the larger pipe, the smaller pipe in the basement was still hooked up to the system, he said.
A survey conducted of the gas mains on the block found no leaks. Prior to the explosion, nobody called in a complaint about leaking gas, said Con Edison President Craig Ivey.
And a copy of a Department of Buildings permit obtained by the Daily News for a renovation job that included plumbing work done last summer at 121 Second Ave. shows that as of August the gas service there was “OK.”
The explosion went off around 3:20 p.m. as neighborhood restaurants were gearing up for the dinner crowd.
Sources told The News there were 15 workers in the basement when someone inside the sushi restaurant smelled gas and contacted the owner of the building, who then called the plumbing contractor.
When one of the workers went down into the basement and opened the door, “everything exploded,” a source said.
Over at the Haveli restaurant, a block south of the explosion, worker Syed Gilani said the blast shook his building.
“We were working in the back, and we heard an explosion, a big noise — the building kind of shook, too,” he said.
Gilani said when he ran outside, he saw injured people sprawled on the sidewalk.
Robert Dandrea, a teacher who was coming home from work, said he was on Second Ave at Eighth St. when he heard the blast.
“The entire building was blown out to the street,” he said of 121 Second Ave. “Four cars had their windows blown out.”
Dandrea said that with the wall gone, he could see the fire churning in the basement below.
“People were yelling, ‘Hurry up! Hurry up!’ It spread quickly,” he said.
Robert Quigley, an artist who has lived at 125 Second Ave. for at least 40 years, got out unharmed but fears his life’s work is lost.
“At first I thought it was like a thunderbolt outside,” he said. “But then I heard people yelling. I said, ‘This is big.’ I grabbed some money and medications and had to leave. I knew something was going on.”
The Second Ave. blast happened a little over a year after another gas explosion obliterated two buildings in East Harlem on March 12, 2014, killing eight people and injuring dozens more.