"Huge" Explosion in New York

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NEW YORK (PIX11) – An explosion was reported at an East Harlem building Wednesday morning, PIX11 reports.

The explosion happened at a building on 116th Street and Park just after 9:30 a.m., according to officials. A three-alarm fire is raging atop the building.

Huge explosion uptown new york city near metro north train tracks close to 116th..#developing http://t.co/uNZaFsRSKa—
Obi Okere (@obiokere) March 12, 2014
There are reports that people are trapped after part of the building collapsed.

It is unclear what caused the explosion at this time, but Con Ed was requested on rush for a gas leak.

Officials are requesting the Metro-North be shut down at this time.

One person has been reported injured.

Explosion Reported At New York City Building | WTIC FOX CT

A crystal meth factory exploding?

Missing Malaysian Airline perhaps?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chittychangchang

A crystal meth factory exploding?

Exactly what I thought.

Took down two multistorey buildings. Gas Leak is favourite.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jesus Jones

Missing Malaysian Airline perhaps?

Plausible.

^No...Coconut juggler ruled it out, innit?...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chittychangchang

A crystal meth factory exploding?

Exactly what I thought.

too big for a meth lab.... not to big for a gar/air explosion.

Search for victims continues after New York blast

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The site where two New York City apartment buildings collapsed after an explosion caused by a gas leak

A rescue operation is continuing in New York after a gas leak triggered an explosion that demolished two buildings and killed at least seven people.

Firefighters are trying to find further victims trapped beneath the rubble of the apartment blocks in Harlem, with the death toll expected to rise.

A police spokesman said five people remained unaccounted for.

More than 60 people were injured after the devastating blast sent debris flying through the air on Wednesday.

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Residents were said to have complained recently about "unbearable" gas smells.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who rushed to the scene in Upper Manhattan, said preliminary information showed the explosion was caused by a gas leak.

A fire at the site of the blast on Park Avenue and 116th Street hampered the initial search and a sinkhole created by a broken water main caused further difficulties.

But firefighters worked through the night, as temperatures dropped to near freezing, to sift through the rubble, using a bulldozer to help clear the site.

Rescue workers pulled three bodies out of the debris in the early hours of Thursday morning, and a seventh death was confirmed just before 12:00GMT (08:00 local time).

"This is a difficult job, a challenging job," Fire Department spokesman Jim Long said.

He added that it was "a very terrible and traumatic scene".

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Firefighters sift through the rubble of the building searching for survivors

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Dozens of first responders were on hand to evacuate victims

The blast shattered windows a block away and rained debris onto nearby railway lines, which closed Grand Central station for several hours on Wednesday.

"It felt like an earthquake had rattled my whole building," said Waldemar Infante, a porter who was working nearby. "There were glass shards everywhere on the ground, and all the stores had their windows blown out."

A witness told the BBC "there was just a lot of panic" following the explosion.

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"We heard 'boom' and all the windows broke down"

Another witness told the New York Daily News that he heard two loud explosions that shook the barber shop where he works.

"It was loud, like boom, boom!" Mitch Abreu said. "It rocked the whole block."

At the scene

https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2014/03/2900.jpg Nick Bryant BBC News, New York

A dense plume of smoke in the skies of Manhattan is a sight for New Yorkers that stirs bad memories and spreads fear - especially early in the morning. But despite the early presence of the FBI as a precautionary measure it soon became clear this was a gas explosion rather than foul play.

The intensity of the blaze, which took hours to extinguish, made it all the more difficult for emergency crews. They could not carry out a search of the rubble. The choking smoke added to the immediate chaos at the scene, as local people rushed to find loved ones.

The hope is that those still missing are alive and simply can't be contacted. The fear is that some were unable to escape.

"It looked like the [Twin] Towers all over again. People covered in dust and covering their mouths."

A local college identified one victim as Griselde Camacho, a 45-year-old security officer who had worked at the school since 2008.

Two other victims were named as Carmen Tanco, 67, a dental hygienist and 21-year-old Rosaura Hernandez-Barrios.

The bodies found by rescue workers overnight have not yet been identified.

At least three of the injured were children and a 15-year-old boy was reported to be in a critical condition. Authorities said that most of the other injuries were minor and included cuts and scrapes.

Meanwhile, city officials and utility company Con Edison are facing questions about whether complaints about a smell of gas in the area had been ignored before the fatal leak.

Con Edison said a resident in a nearby building reported smelling gas shortly before the incident, but a team of engineers did not arrive until it was too late.

A tenant in one of the destroyed buildings, Ruben Borrero, said residents had complained to the landlord about smelling gas as recently as Tuesday.

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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio: "This is a tragedy of the worst kind"

He said that city fire officials were called about the odour a few weeks ago and that the smell had been "unbearable". He added: "You walk in the front door and you want to turn around and walk directly out."

But the New York fire department said its records showed no instances in the past month in which tenants of the two buildings had reported any leaks or the smell of gas.

Edward Foppiano, a senior vice president at Con Edison, said a gas odour complaint had been lodged with the company in May 2013 but that the small leak it related to had been found and fixed.

He said the gas main that serves the area was made of plastic and cast iron, and the iron dated to 1887.

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Before and after at the collapsed buildings

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Nearly 200 firefighters were dispatched to try to extinguish the fire the followed the blast

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Firefighters begin searching through the rubble of the two buildings

BBC News - Search for victims continues after New York blast