Death toll from NY gas explosion rises to 7
Print Edition
RESCUERS pulled four bodies from the rubble of two New York City apartment buildings yesterday, raising to seven the death toll from a gas leak-triggered explosion.
The blast on Wednesday morning in Manhattan’s East Harlem neighborhood also injured more than 60 people.
Crews used floodlights and thermal imaging cameras at the site on Park Avenue and 116th Street as they searched yesterday.
Fire Department spokesman Jim Long said it was “a very terrible and traumatic scene.”
Firefighters perching on surrounding rooftops yesterday morning doused smoldering buildings, while heavy machinery cleared away debris.
Weather also posed a challenge, with temperatures dropping well below freezing and rain falling, but rescuers remained at the site.
The explosion occurred 15 minutes after a nearby 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 too late.
The blast shattered windows a block away and rained debris onto elevated commuter railroad tracks close by.
Hunter College identified one victim as Griselde Camacho, a 45-year-old security officer who had worked there since 2008.
Also killed was Carmen Tanco, 67, a dental hygienist.
Officials in Mexico said two of the victims came from the central Mexican state of Puebla. The state’s government identified them as Rosaura Barrios Vazquez, 43, and Rosaura Hernandez Barrios, 22.
The bodies of three unidentified men also were pulled from the rubble, authorities said.
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.
A tenant in one destroyed buildings, Ruben Borrero, said residents had complained to the landlord about smelling gas as recently as Tuesday.
And several weeks ago, Borrero said, city fire officials were called about the odor.
“It was unbearable,” said Borrero, who lived with his mother and sister, who were away at the time of the explosion.
City records show that the building Borrero lived in was owned by Kaoru Muramatsu.
Records at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development indicate the agency responded to complaints from a tenant and cited Muramatsu in January for bars over a fire escape and missing carbon monoxide and smoke detectors.
The blast destroyed everything Borrero’s family owned.
“I have my mother and sister,” he said. “I’m happy for that.”
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