Mayor de Blasio visited the site where two buildings were leveled by a gas leak in East Harlem yesterday. He said that "every effort has been expended to serve this crisis" and that it had been a "painful 26 hours" as the death toll reached seven, five more since his press conference after the blast.
Fires are still smoldering at 1644 and 1646 Park Avenue, as the Fire Department has had to battle today's high winds. The area is also very smokey: City officials urged residents to keep their windows closed and to stay inside. The Department of Environmental Protection is also monitoring the air quality.
Firefighters have been removing debris, and de Blasio said, "We are continuing rescue operations, hoping to find others still alive." FDNY Chief of Department Edward Kilduff had told the mayor that most of the victims have been found about 20 feet into the pile. The force of the explosion measured .5 on the Richter scale.
The NY Times reports: "[The rescue] effort was further complicated by a large sinkhole that developed in front of the buildings, limiting the use of heavy machinery. Investigators are looking into the possibility that a water main break, which caused the sinkhole, might have played a role in rupturing a gas line, officials said. However, it remained unclear whether the water main broke before or after the explosion."
De Blasio said today, "We know there was an explosion but we don’t know everything about the lead up to it." Con Ed, which claims it checked the block last month for leaks, said the pipe for the building was over 100 years old. The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates pipeline issues, said, "We'll be looking at Con Ed's call logs to see when the first calls started to coming in to report such."
The mayor also urged New Yorkers to report any gas leak concerns.
