2 NYC buildings collapse in explosion, 2 dead

NEW YORK (AP) -- A huge explosion leveled two apartment buildings in New York City, killing two women and injuring 17 people. A utility company says a resident in a nearby building reported smelling gas shortly before the blast.

Sidewalks for blocks around the building in Harlem were littered with broken glass from shattered storefront and apartment windows. Witnesses say the explosion was so powerful it knocked groceries off the shelves of nearby stores.

Police, some wearing gas and medical masks, set up barricades and handed out masks to residents and onlookers to protected them from the thick, acrid smoke that shrouded the area.

“It felt like an earthquake had rattled my whole building,” said Waldemar Infante, 24, a porter from a nearby residential building who was working in the basement when the explosion occurred. “There were glass shards everywhere on the ground and all the stores had their windows blown out.”

Firefighters spray water on a collapsed building in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York, U.S., on Wednesday, March 12, 2014. New York City firefighters battled a five-alarm blaze after an explosion in East Harlem collapsed at least one building, killing two people. The blast came about 15 minutes after a neighbor reported a pervasive smell of gas. Photographer (Bloomberg)

A resident from a building next to the two that collapsed reported that he smelled gas inside his apartment, but thought the odor could be coming from outside, Con Edison spokesman Bob McGee said.

He said the utility dispatched two crews just after 9:15 a.m. but they arrived after the explosion. McGee said the street is served by an eight-inch (20- centimeter) low pressure gas main, but would not speculate on whether a gas leak caused the explosion.

“We're working with the FDNY and checking gas lines,” he said. “We're working to isolate any leaks and make the area safe.”

A man who lives several blocks from the scene of the blast said he heard the explosion at about 9:30 a.m., ran to the window and saw flames consuming one building and smoke rising into the air.

“I was in my bedroom and the explosion went off, it kind of shook the whole building,” Eoin Hayes, 26, said. “You could feel the vibrations going through the building.”

Hayes said the fire consumed one building and then moved to the one next to it before the flames eventually subsided.

The explosion occurred very close to elevated Metro-North commuter railroad tracks. Train service was suspended to and from Grand Central on all three train lines while employees remove debris from the tracks.

The fire department said it sent nearly 170 members to the scene.