East Village Building Explosion, NYC (From Another Angle)

Description: East Village Building Explosion, NYC (From Another Angle) A five-story East Village building was reduced to ruins and another was on the verge of collapsing Thursday after a thunderous gas blast sparked a seven-alarm fire that injured at least 16 people and sent choking black smoke billowing into the sky. Two people were critically injured by an explosion that erupted less than an hour after Con Edison inspectors had given the owner of the wrecked building a failing grade on a gas pipe installation that was being done in the basement. But somehow nobody was killed by an inferno that turned a busy block on Second Ave. into a war zone. In the terrifying aftermath, stunned survivors spilled out of the burning buildings, some of them blinded by the smoke, many of them slipping on the rain-slickened and debris-strewn pavement. “I saw a man running out with his hair singed,” said Chloe Kekovic who works at a nearby barbeque joint. “He was screaming and unable to see.” Meanwhile, one brave soul — identified by witnesses as an off-duty firefighter — scaled the fire escape of 121 Second Ave. and started kicking-in the windows to help whoever might have been trapped inside get out. But as the flames devouring the building grew more intense and started spreading to neighboring structures, the would-be rescuer beat a hasty retreat and joined the other escapees racing away from the flames. Ataur Rahman, who manages the Dallas BBQ near St. Marks Place, said he feared dozens were dead from the “huge blast.” “The entire store front came completely out onto the street,” he said. “I ran towards the blast. Two people were lying in the street. They looked like they were already dead. Two other people were sitting on the sidewalk covered in blood.” Minutes later cops and firefighters arrived as disoriented workers from the wrecked sushi restaurant on the ground floor — their faces blackened by smoke, their aprons askew — were led to safety by passersby. “There were three bloody guys in the street, two were restaurant workers,” witness Ben MacKinnon said, who watched the drama unfold from a nearby cafe. The third guy was an older man with tattoos who was “screaming for his mother,” he said. “Half of his face was bloodied up.” Stuart Lipsky, who lived at 125 Second Ave., escaped with his black and white cat Muffin, but his other cat was still missing. “I ran in when everyone else was running out to grab my cats,” he said. “I grabbed one. The other one was too fast for me.” Two victims were rushed to the burn unit at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Cornell where they were in critical condition. Two more victims — a man and a woman — were taken to Bellevue Hospital, and both were in serious condition. There was also another man there brought from the scene in fair condition, officials said.

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