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7 Dead From East Harlem Building Explosion As More Bodies Are Found
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 13, 2014
Modified Mar 13, 2014
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By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 13, 2014
Modified Mar 13, 2014
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Four more bodies were recovered from the debris of two buildings that exploded from a gas leak in East Harlem on Wednesday. Crews have been using special equipment and backhoes to sift through the remains of the buildings through the night. According to WCBS 2, "Three victims were found sometime between midnight Wednesday and early Thursday morning. A fourth victim was found a few hours later."
It's believed the fatalities include four women and two men and three victims have been identified: Griselde Camacho, 44, Carmen Tanco, 67, and Rosaura Hernandez-Barrios, 22. Dozens of other were injured from the fiery blast: The NY Times reports: "Officials said 13 people went to Harlem Hospital Center, including a 15-year-old boy in critical condition; 22 people at Mount Sinai Hospital, including a woman in critical condition with head trauma; and 18 at Metropolitan Hospital Center, all with minor injuries."
A gas leak was reported near 1652 Park Avenue yesterday at 9:13 a.m. Then, at 9:31 a.m., the FDNY received a call about a fire and arrived two minutes later to 1644 Park Avenue and 1646 Park Avenue, finding that the buildings had collapsed with a fire blazing. Con Ed, which had been dispatched at 9:15 a.m., arrived after explosion.
Con Ed said it hadn't any recent reports of a gas leak (there was a gas leak at 1644 Park last year and it was apparently fixed). The utility said it surveyed gas lines last month and didn't find any leaks.
However, many residents say they have smelled gas for weeks and even years. Keema Thomas told the Post, "For the past two years, we’ve been smelling gas in the building. And police from the 25th Precinct would come and evacuate it sometimes. They’ll say, ‘Yeah, we smell gas,’ or whatever the case is, but then they’d let us back in 10, 15 minutes later. And they’d say it’s fine. But we’ve definitely been smelling gas for a while now." And from the Times:
Jennifer Salas and her husband, Jordy Salas, lived at 1644 Park Avenue; she said on Wednesday that her husband and the couple’s dog were in their apartment at the time of the collapse, and were still missing.
The couple were among several neighbors who said that they had detected a gaslike odor before, but that it seemed to worsen on Tuesday night. “Last night it smelled like gas, but then the smell vanished and we all went to sleep,” she said.
Another couple, Shavonne Cano and her fiancé, Corey Louire, said they also smelled gas on Tuesday night, and slept with a window open. When the gas was still noticeable in the morning, they called Con Edison.
Sarah Borrero, who lives at 1646 Park Avenue, told the Daily News that she regularly smelled gas and smelled it in the morning, "The 58-year-old hospital worker walked into her kitchen to check the stove. But once she realized the scent was coming from elsewhere, she headed off to" work." She said, "We’ve had that smell before, so I didn’t take it that seriously. You could smell it, but it wasn’t that bad."
Some people are still missing; the mayor's office says, "Anyone attempting to locate family or loved ones that may have been in the immediate area should contact the Unified Victim Identification System at 311, which is active."
The FDNY remains at the scene, working through the rubble and putting out fires in the bitter cold. FDNY spokesman Jim Long said, "This is a difficult job, a challenging job... [It's] a very terrible and traumatic scene." The DEP is monitoring air quality and the National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating the possibility of a pipeline failure.
Tagged
building explosion
con ed
east harlem
fdny
gas leak
harlem
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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