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Yesterday afternoon, an apparently gas explosion caused a fireball and shook a Flushing apartment building. The fire injured 17 people, including a 2-year-old and her father were were critically injured. A resident told the NY Times, “I saw the man, who was burnt from head to toe. His clothes were burnt and he was screaming, and he said, ‘Save my baby!’”
The man was identified as Edgar Zalbumbide, who lost 75% of his skin. The Daily News reports that he may have "accidentally caused the explosion when he used a candle to light his stove because the pilot light was not working." The building at 147-25 Sanford Avenue had been without gas for over a month, because of a June 11 fire. On Wednesday, service was starting to be restored to different lines in the building, and one resident told the Post, "Right away,we could smell gas. I told Con Ed and they sent somebody out. He told us everything was OK, but I was nervous something like this would happen."
It's unclear what caused the blast, but Con Ed crews were working at the building during the explosion. Con Ed, which said the contractors were responsible for turning on the appliances and the landlord is responsible for making sure it's safe, told the media, "We do integrity tests to see if there are gas leaks. They all checked out."
The tenants were given shelter at the junior high school across the street and it's unclear when the 90-unit building will be open to them again. City Councilman John Liu said, "After suffering for weeks with no hot water or gas, my constituents now find themselves having to live through an even worse nightmare."
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This poor guy who was so badly burned might not make it. What a horrible situation caused by a crummy landlord and made worse by ConEd. Why wasn't the structure red-tagged earlier until these problems were worked out? It's no fun having to relocate for a while, but that beats this any day.
A year or so ago, a resident in my condo, while trying to affix a shelf to the kitchen wall and drilled through a gas line. Good thing he wasn't a smoker and called the desk and told them. The NYCFD was there in minutes, the first thing they did was shut down the gas for the entire building, a good move. Within the next couple of days the gas returned to the building except for the line of apartments that the damaged pipe ran through. This is a 30 story building. Luckily I wasn't affected but some of my neighbors were. It then became nightmarish, the plumbers worked feverishly to check every stove in the line. It went on for over a month, they would complete the job and then wait for the building inspectors to come and wait and wait. The biggest culprit (other than the guy that drilled into the pipe) was Con Ed. They said they couldn't come immediately and when they did the couldn't do anything because some minor thing wasn't done just so. The plumbers warned the Building Manager not to call Con Ed because they would then put you at the bottom of the list for annoying them. I took upon myself to call our newly elected city councilman and spoke to someone in his office who seemed less than outraged. She then told me there was a person in their office who would handle it and that person would call me right back. Needless to say I never got the call. It took about 2 months to get the gas restored.
I know this isn't as tragic the fire in Queens. If their gas was shut down and it must have been, they are in some more bad times.
The system for gas pilots in stoves and ovens is so primitive.
What people have to remember is to turn off their gas lines at the valve in their homes anytime the gas is turned off, so that when it comes back on, they are in control of the gas, and are not at the mercy of gas building up in their kitchen due to the pilots not being lit.
If it ever happens that you notice your pilots are not lit, open a window and air the place out before lighting the pilot again.
Call Con Ed if in doubt of what to do.
Yes, the landlords were probably crummy, but there are some things a tenant has to know in order to keep safe and not be further victimized by a landlord's shabby maintenance.
terrible story, and pretty incredible that the guy who was burned was more concerned about his child.
Seems more like this is Con Ed's fault, plus accidental, than the fault of the landlord. The gas was shut off because of an earlier fire. It's a 90 unit building.
Unless the tenant had previously complained to the super or something, it seems unlikely that the landlord would even know about it. A pilot light not working is, most times, a minor inconvenience, not a life-threatening issue. Though I agree with cucarachita that it does give one pause that we use pilot lights at all, since they ARE pretty primitive. The newer electrical switches seem safer.
Con Ed was working on the building, and was in a much better position to understand and warn people about this potential hazard.
Anyway, I hope the guy makes it.
To add insult to injury the fire department entered my Inlaws apartment and removed the jewelry.
They live high on the upper floors and the only people who had access on those floors was the fire department, they entered through the fire escape and the front door never opened.
No tenants were allowed back in until 2am, I guess to give the fire department enough time to go shopping.
The Building had many problems before hand. Apts are scarce and in order to get the apt they had to pay the super $1200.
Since then there has been several super's all with various issues.
The gas had been shut off for 2 months and they paid the tenants $50 for their troubles.
Need any more reason to move out of NY?
When there is a fear of leaking gas, it's really ConEd's responsibility to ensure that any affected appliances are safe to return to use...that's if they are in the building and shut them off to begin with. I had an issue with a furnace that they inspected and turned on only to have serious leakage later. if they shut off the gas to begin with, then they own the situation until everything is in running order. That's why I got a check off of them. If a tennant shuts off the gas or an appliance, then without further inspection, that tennant is responsible for his actions. But after a fire, it's the landlord's responsiblity to ensure that the building is habitable and must do the follow through on utilities. This wasn't done properly so the landlord is on the hook.