About 19 people were injured, four of whom are in a critical condition, after an explosion and seven-alarm fire razed down an apartment building along with three other structures in New York City's East Village on Thursday.
At a news conference Thursday evening, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that according to the preliminary investigation, gas explosion due to plumbing and gas work in the building that was burnt down was the cause of the tragedy. The construction crews accidentally "hit a gas main," the New York Post reported.
President of Con Edison-a utility company-Craig Ivey, said that a plumber had been doing work with linkage to a gas service upgrade, and the inspectors had also been there to assess the planned meter installation about an hour before the fire. However, he said, the work failed the inspection partly because a space for the new meters was not big enough. The inspectors said that the gas could not be installed to that part of the building.
De Blasio said there were no reports made regarding a gas leak before the explosion had occurred on Thursday, Fox News reported. Just as well, Con Edison said that a survey on the gas mains had been conducted on Wednesday and there were no leaks found.
However, Blake Farber, a bystander who lives just around the corner told the Associated Press that he had been walking by the building and smelled gas seconds before the explosion.
Even after hours of the explosion, smoke from the fire could still be seen and smelled across the city. Items from a sushi restaurant at the ground-floor were blow into the streets, as well as a café door due to the force of the explosion. At the sidewalks were rubble, glass, and debris could be found.