WATCH ABOVE: NYC mayor visits the scene in East Harlem after a deadly explosion Wednesday. Mayor Bill de Blasio said every effort ‘has been expended to address this crisis.’
- Crews are using thermal imaging cameras to identify heat spots in the rubble
- 8 people are dead, at least 60 are injured
- At least five people are missing
- NTSB sends team to investigate the explosion
- Gas leak suspected to be the cause
- A utility company said a resident in a nearby building reported smelling gas shortly before the blast
- Witnesses say the explosion was so powerful it knocked groceries off the shelves of nearby stores and sent people running out onto the streets
NEW YORK – Rescuers working amid cold, gusty winds and billowing smoke pulled four additional bodies overnight from the rubble of two Manhattan apartment buildings, as the death toll rose Thursday from a gas leak-triggered explosion that reduced the area to a pile of smashed bricks, splinters and mangled metal.
IN PHOTOS: Before and after photos of East Harlem explosion
The explosion Wednesday morning in East Harlem injured more than 60 people, with searchers still trying to locate others a day later. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that the city was “hoping to find others still alive” and then “to determine exactly what happened here.”
Earlier, he told firefighters at the scene, “I can only imagine knowing that at any moment you might find a body, how difficult that is.”
Crews used generator-powered floodlights and thermal imaging cameras to identify heat spots – bodies or pockets of fire – at the site on Park Avenue and 116th Street. Police guarding the scene wore surgical masks and neighborhood residents covered faces with scarfs amid the thick, acrid air.
READ MORE: Gas explosion destroys 2 NY buildings; 6 people killed
Edward Kilduff, the Fire Department’s chief of department, said the amount of debris had been reduced to about 1 1/2 floors by Thursday morning. He said rescuers were concerned about the stability of a free-standing wall at the back of the scene.
Huge clouds of thick smoke swirled over Park Avenue and wafted through the neighborhood.
Construction equipment with iron jaws picked up the smoldering debris, first depositing it on the pavement, then hoisting it onto trucks that hauled it away. The debris included structural beams, pieces of windows and residents’ belongings.
Workers initially were hampered from fully accessing the building space because of a sinkhole caused by a subsurface water main break. The weather also posed a challenge, with temperatures dropping into the 20s and rain falling overnight.
IN PHOTOS: Building explodes, collapses in East Harlem neighbourhood
The fiery blast erupted around 15 minutes after a neighboring resident reported smelling gas, authorities said. The Con Edison utility said it immediately sent workers to check out the report, but they didn’t arrive until it was too late.
Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano and Con Edison CEO John McAvoy said that before that call, they had received no complaints in the last 30 days about a gas leak in the area.
The explosion shattered windows a block away, rained debris onto elevated commuter railroad tracks close by, cast a plume of smoke over the skyline and sent people running into the streets.
“It felt like an earthquake had rattled my whole building,” said Waldemar Infante, a porter who was working in a basement nearby. “There were glass shards everywhere on the ground, and all the stores had their windows blown out.”
Several East Harlem explosion victims identified
Hunter College identified one victim as Griselde Camacho, a security officer who worked at the Silberman School of Social Work building. Hunter, in a statement on its website, said Comacho, 45, had worked for the college since 2008.
The explosion reduced two buildings to rubble and seriously damaged nearby buildings. The Red Cross has been housing over hundreds of people who were displaced by Wednesday’s blast. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)
Also killed was Carmen Tanco, 67, a dental hygienist. Her cousin News 12 cameraman Angel Vargas said the family started a frantic search when she didn’t show up for work Wednesday.
Police identified another victim as Rosaura Hernandez-Barrios, 21.
WATCH: An explosion levelled two apartment buildings in East Harlem Wednesday morning, leaving at least two people dead and more than a dozen missing. Robin Stickley reports.
The bodies of four unidentified people also were found. A man was pulled from the rubble just after midnight Wednesday, a woman found at about 2:50 a.m. Thursday and a man discovered about a half-hour later. Fire Department spokesman Danny Glover didn’t immediately know the gender of the seventh person, whose body was pulled from the rubble around 7:30 a.m.
RAW VIDEO: First-responders jump into action at scene of Harlem building explosion
At least three of the injured were children; one, a 15-year-old boy, was reported in critical condition with burns, broken bones and internal injuries. Most of the other victims’ injuries were minor and included cuts and scrapes.
Gas smell complaints reportedly previously filed
A tenant in one of the destroyed buildings, Ruben Borrero, said residents had complained to the landlord about smelling gas as recently as Tuesday.
A few weeks ago, Borrero said, city fire officials were called about the odour, which he said was so bad that a tenant on the top floor broke open the door to the roof for ventilation.
“It was unbearable,” said Borrero, who lived in a second-floor apartment with his mother and sister, who were away at the time of the explosion. “You walk in the front door and you want to turn around and walk directly out.”
The fire department said a check of its records found no instances in the past month in which tenants of the two buildings reported gas odours or leaks.
Edward Foppiano, a Con Ed senior vice-president, said there was only one gas odour complaint on record with the utility from either address, and it was last May, at the building next door to Borrero’s. It was a small leak in customer piping and was fixed, he said.
The block was last checked on Feb. 28 as part of a regular leak survey, and no problems were detected, Foppiano said.
City records show that the building Borrero lived in was owned by Kaoru Muramatsu. A phone number listed for Muramatsu rang unanswered.
VIDEO: Witnesses describe what they saw, heard in Harlem building explosion
Records at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development indicate the agency responded to complaints from a tenant and cited Muramatsu in January for a broken outlet, broken plaster, bars over a fire escape, a missing window guard and missing carbon monoxide and smoke detectors.
A National Transportation Safety Board team arrived in the evening to investigate. The federal agency investigates pipeline accidents in addition to transportation disasters.
NTSB team member Robert Sumwalt said investigators would be looking at how Con Edison handles reports of gas odours and issues with the pipe and would be constructing a timeline of events.
RAW VIDEO: Cellphone video captures moments following explosion in Harlem
Just before the explosion, a resident from a building next to the two that were destroyed reported smelling gas inside his apartment and thought the odour might be coming from outside, Con Ed spokesman Bob McGee said.
On Wednesday night, the American Red Cross served meals to more than 130 people living in seven buildings impacted by the blast. The Salvation Army provided accommodations in one of its shelters.
The explosion destroyed everything Borrero’s family owned, including the ashes of his father, who died a few years ago. Borrero said he assumes his 5-year-old terrier, Nina, was killed.
But “I have my mother and sister,” he said. “I’m happy for that.”
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