Injury toll in building collapse rises to 22, as mayor suggests possible 'impropriety'

[brooklynite]

Source: Crain's New York Business

Someone may have improperly tapped a gas line before an explosion that leveled three apartment buildings and injured nearly two dozen people, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday as firefighters soaked the still-smoldering buildings and police searched for at least two missing people.

"There is a possibility here that the gas line was inappropriately accessed internally by people in the building," but officials need to get access to the wreckage to explore it further, Mr. de Blasio said. He wouldn't say more about why officials believe that's a possibility.

The number of people injured in Thursday's blast rose from 19 to 22, with four critically injured. Police were searching for at least two people: Nicholas Figueroa, a bowling alley worker who had been on a date at a sushi restaurant in one of three buildings that were leveled, and Moises Lucon, a worker there. Authorities also were exploring whether a third person might be unaccounted for, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.

Read more: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20150327/REAL_ESTATE/150329880/injury-toll-in-building-collapse-rises-to-22-as-mayor-suggests#utm_medium=email&utm_source=cnyb-dailyalert&utm_campaign=cnyb-dailyalert-20150327

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[Historic NY]

1. Holy crap the entire place is gone to the corner...

all because idiots doing work, they were neither able to do or skilled to handle. First I've seen of the final pictures

[Warpy]

2. Either they hooked it all up to the old gas line

or they broke Con Ed's lock on the new one. This one is going to be fun to track down. I highly suspect the contractor who tried to bribe the inspector told his workers he'd grease a palm farther up the food chain and to keep working. I've seen that shit before. Tenement work is rarely up to code and when it is, it's accidental.

70+ people are now homeless and 2 are presumed dead because a contractor couldn't be arsed to hire competent people and submit realistic bids.

ETA: Looks like the building across the alley lost windows, so there's likely smoke and water damage there; the building next door got pretty well cooked and will likely need that wall shored up, at the very least.