Massive blaze as three New York apartment blocks collapse in gas explosion

[AroundTheWorld]

Massive blaze as three New York apartment blocks collapse in gas explosion

PUBLISHED : Friday, 27 March, 2015, 2:29pm
UPDATED : Friday, 27 March, 2015, 6:30pm

Reuters in New York

People look at the site of a residential apartment building which collapsed and was engulfed in flames. Photo: Reuters

Four apartment buildings in New York’s East Village neighbourhood caught fire from an apparent gas explosion and three collapsed, injuring 19 people.

The blast shortly after 3pm local time on Thursday [3am Hong Kong time on Friday] sent flames leaping into the sky and rocked the residential area in Manhattan. Bloodied victims ran from the buildings and collapsed on the street, witnesses said.

WATCH: A witness's video of the fire on Second Avenue



The four buildings contain 49 apartments, according to a spokesman for the American Red Cross at the scene. The ground floors were occupied by small eateries.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference that preliminary evidence indicated it was a gas-related explosion.

A Fire Department spokesman said three of the four buildings on Second Avenue had collapsed or partially collapsed.

A gaping hole, where once a commercial and residential building stood, was engulfed in thick smoke and reduced to debris, showed a photograph posted on Twitter by the New York Fire Department.

The fourth building “is still involved with some pockets of fire, it’s still an active scene. Investigation is still ongoing,” he said.

A screenshot taken from Twitter user and local resident Scott Westerfeld of the fire.

Nineteen people were hurt. Four, all civilians, were in critical condition, the spokesman said.

A New York police spokesman there were no reports of anyone missing.

The Con Edison utility said in a statement that its inspectors had been at the site to evaluate work a building plumber was doing in a building for a gas service upgrade. The work failed to pass inspection, it said.

The smell of burning was detected as far away as Midtown Manhattan, around 40 blocks farther north, and heavy smoke billowed high into the air.

The seven-alarm blaze in the neighbourhood of small businesses, restaurants and apartments involved more than 250 Fire Department personnel.

Moishe Perl, 64, who owns Moishe’s Bake Shop nearby, said he heard an explosion, ran outside and saw the lower floors of a building start to crumble.

“Most of the people were running out of the building and climbing down the fire escape,” he said, while others were helped out of windows by passersby.

Ben Mackinnon, 28, said he was drinking coffee in a cafe when he heard an explosion from across the street.

“The explosion was big enough that the door of the cafe blew open,” Mackinnon said.

Firefighters battle a blaze at the site where a residential apartment building collapsed. Photo: Reuters

He said he saw several bloodied men emerge from a sushi restaurant where the explosion appeared to originate. One of them fell to the pavement.

Shameem Noor, a cashier at the Veselka restaurant about a block away, said he heard the blast and saw three or four people fall to the street.

A relocation centre for displaced residents was set up in a nearby elementary school, the Red Cross spokesman said.

Just over a year ago, eight people were killed when a gas explosion levelled two apartment buildings in Harlem in northern Manhattan on March 12, last year.

The East Village is one of the most popular areas of New York, home to a large number of students and wealthy professionals, and stuffed with boutiques, restaurants, nightclubs and cafes.

With additional reporting from AFP