LOST IN THE DUST
Desperate hunt for 2 missing in E. Village blast
POLICE USED cadaver dogs to search rubble at Second Ave. and E. Seventh St. on Friday. Moises Lucon and Nicholas Figueroa were still missing after Thursday’s explosion and massive fire destroyed three buildings.
IN THE AFTERMATH of the East Village inferno, three desperate brothers spent Friday searching in vain for their missing sibling.
Moises Lucon vanished after a gas blast obliterated the building where he toiled as a busboy in a ground floor sushi restaurant and officials believe he and another man may be in the rubble.
And as the brothers wandered the streets and showed Lucon’s photograph to anybody who might recognize the hardworking Guatemalan immigrant, their desperation grew.
“We have just been walking down the streets, one by one,” said 21-year-old Zacarias Lucon. “We are just so exhausted and upset. I don’t know what happened to him.”
“The police told me that they haven’t found him yet.”
Lucon, 26, emigrated to New York seven years ago and lived with his brothers in Corona, Queens. He had been working at the Sushi Park restaurant at 121 Second Ave. for about a year and a half. Zacarias Lucon said they didn’t realize their brother was missing until his co-workers called him nearly six hours after the explosion Thursday.
“They said he is the only one that hasn’t been found,” he said.
Zacarias said he broke the news to his parents in Guatemala on Friday morning.
“They are terribly worried,” he told the Daily News.
The other missing man is Nicholas Figueroa, 23, of the Upper East Side, who was on a lunch date at the sushi joint at the time of the explosion.
“Right now we don’t really know what to do, we’re just praying,” his dad, Nick Figueroa, said. “I don’t know what to do. I’m gonna go crazy if my son is not here.”
Figueroa’s brother said if anybody could survive, it’s his brother.
“My brother is a strong guy,” said 22-year-old Neal Figueroa. “Even if he is still in the rubble, I know he would still be in a predicament to get himself out and so I’m just praying for that. I know in my heart, my brother is OK.”
The missing man’s date, 22-yearold Teresa Galarce of Brooklyn, escaped with a broken nose, broken rib and punctured lung, her sister said.
“I thought he was a real nice guy,” Isabel Galarce said of Figueroa. “Very down to earth, very easygoing, very easy to talk to. I’ve been told he’s very adventurous.”
Over at the blast site, the struggle to save the living gave way to a search for the dead.
NYPD officers using cadaver dogs sniffed through the mountain of wreckage.
Office of Emergency Management chief Joseph Esposito, when asked if the men are likely to
be found alive, said, “I would doubt that very seriously.”
Cops started searching after firefighters doused the last of flames that continued to smolder a day after the blast — and after what remained of the façade was torn down.
Four of the 22 people who were hurt remained in critical condition with burns and other injuries, officials said. Six of the injured were firefighters, but none were seriously hurt.
Dozens of people were left homeless, including “Sopranos” actress Drea de Matteo, who lost her apartment of 22 years.
Pet owners searched in desperation for missing four-legged friends. Tom Walker handed out fliers of Sago, a missing 14-year-old Siamese cat whose owners lived above the sushi restaurant but were on vacation when the blast occurred.
"A lot of people have called to express concern but nothing yet," Walker said.
And 187 residences and 32 commercial customers were without gas after Con Edison cut off supplies as a precaution.
“This was, 24 hours ago, a vibrant bustling street, and today people are dealing with the aftermath of a tragedy,” Mayor de Blasio said.
Eleven buildings with 144 apart-
ments were evacuated. Some residents might be allowed back on Sunday, the mayor added.
The Red Cross was putting up 20 displaced families in hotels across the city Friday night, although at least 125 people had shown up for help earlier in the afternoon.
The blast in the basement of 121 Second Ave. ignited a blaze that collapsed that building and then spread to three neighboring buildings.The buildings at 119 and 123 Second Ave. partially collapsed and will be demolished. The building at 125 Second Ave. was also badly damaged and may be razed.
“Most of their items will not be recoverable,” FNDY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.
Nicholas Vendikos, 45, was driving past 121 Second Ave. on his way back to work in Brooklyn when the building exploded outward, blasting in the windows of his Subaru.
“I felt like I was in the video for the Boston Marathon terror attack,” said Vendikos, whose ears were still ringing a day later. “There was nobody on the street, nothing was going on. Then there was this gigantic boom! It was the loudest bang I ever heard.”
Preliminary evidence points to the cause as a gas explosion caused by plumbing and gas work that was being done in the basement at 121 Second Ave.
Police are questioning the general contractor — but have not charged — Dilber Kukic of the Bronx-based Neighborhood Construction Corp., which was doing renovations on the building.
Kukic was arrested in October and charged with trying to give a $600 cash bribe to an undercover city inspector to make two violations on properties he owned on W. 173rd St. in Manhattan go away.
“That doesn’t seem relevant in this case right now, but we’ll see as we go forward,” Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.
Kukic was burned in the blast and helped pull the son of the building owner to safety, Boyce said. Both men remain hospitalized.
Some 15 workers were at 121 Second Ave. when someone at the sushi restaurant smelled gas and contacted the building owner, who called the plumbing contractor.
When Kukic and the building owner’s son went into the basement and opened the door “the explosion happened,” Boyce said.