Friday, March 27, 2015

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At Least 2 People Missing After East Village Explosion - New York Times




Slide Show|4 Photos

Fire and Rescue Crews Continue to Work in East Village



Fire and Rescue Crews Continue to Work in East Village


Robert Stolarik for The New York Times



At least two people were unaccounted for as firefighters continued their attempts to extinguish smoldering pockets of fire in Lower Manhattan one day after an explosion and a blaze reduced three buildings to rubble, according to city officials.


A drizzly gray dawn broke on the explosion site on Friday morning, with firefighters high up on a crane blasting a jet of water down onto the destroyed buildings at the corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street. Scores of firefighters and workers from the utility Consolidated Edison were at the scene to conduct an investigation and, once the fire is completely contained, begin their search operation.



The explosion on Thursday afternoon ripped through a sushi restaurant at 121 Second Avenue, sparking an inferno that engulfed four neighboring buildings, with residents scrambling down fire escapes to safety and others helped by bystanders in daring rescues. The fire burned into the night, sending clouds of smoke billowing into the sky, while families searched for people who might be missing.




Play Video|1:50

Videos Show Fire in East Village



Videos Show Fire in East Village



Witness videos show the scene in the East Village after an explosion caused a fire on Second Avenue, affecting neighboring buildings.


March 26, 2015. Photo by Nancy Borowick for The New York Times.

One young man presumed missing was on a date at the restaurant, according to his family, while the police say the second missing person is a busboy. The authorities declined to officially identify him pending notification of his family.


James Long, a spokesman for the Fire Department, cautioned that the initial reports of the missing persons could change.


At least 19 people were taken to area hospitals for injuries and four remained in critical condition. Those with the most serious injuries, officials said, seemed to have been hurt during the initial blast.


The investigation into the explosion’s cause was focusing on plumbing and gas work being done at the restaurant, Sushi Park.




A Facebook photo of Nicholas Figueroa, who was missing as of early Friday morning.

There was apparently no current work permit on file with the city for plumbing work to be done at that site, according to public records. Con Edison workers had visited the location just an hour before the explosion and found the work to be deficient.


Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking on Thursday, said the work being done there was thought to be the cause of the explosion but did not go into detail. He toured the scene Friday morning with fire officials.


At the time of the explosion, Sushi Park was continuing its lunch service, with diners taking advantage of the half-price deal of the day.


Witnesses described how the powerful explosion ripped through the restaurant, saying there were several minutes before the fire swept through that building and then neighboring buildings. During the brief window of time between the explosion and the spread of the fire, at least a dozen people escaped or were helped to safety.



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The fire started at 121 2nd Ave., set off by by a possible gas explosion in a restaurant where plumbing and gas work was being done.




OPEN Graphic



“It was the loudest and most intense explosion I have ever heard,” said Tony Klinger, who had seen people in the restaurant just before the blast. “I thought it might be a bomb, some kind of terrorist attack. The whole inside of the storefront, of the restaurant, was outside on the sidewalk where I had just walked.”


Nicholas Figueroa, 23, had gone to Sushi Park for a lunchtime date.


He has not been heard from since, according to his family.


His date, they said, was being treated for her injuries at Bellevue Hospital Center. She told her family that they were there when the place exploded and was swallowed by flames.







“I don’t know what to do,” Mr. Figueroa’s brother Tyler, 19, said early Friday outside of a makeshift Red Cross center in the East Village. “We’re just praying that they find him.”


The family fanned out across Manhattan on Thursday afternoon to search for Nicholas. Tyler walked to a nearby hospital while his father, also named Nicholas Figueroa, and a cousin sought the help of the police. But there was no trace of him.


At the end of a long night of searching, his weary parents returned to their home on the Upper East Side early Friday, hopeful that their son might have returned while they were away.


“My father is not stable, because he’s crying so much,” Tyler Figueroa said. “The police said that they’re looking into it, but we just want to know how this could’ve happened.”


The only thing the family knows for sure is that Nicholas had just paid his bill for lunch and was most likely just about to leave.


A bank statement they accessed shows that he used a debit card to pay $13.04 to Sushi Park.



John Surico, Nate Schweber and Nikita Stewart contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.











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