1 Dead In Queens House Explosion; Gas Leak Suspected

Photograph of firefighters around the destroyed home in Queens' Floral Park neighborhood by Robert Mecea/AP

Firefighters found a woman's body under the rubble of a Floral Park house on 260th Street that exploded yesterday afternoon. The Daily News reports the body was discovered four hours after the 4:50 p.m. explosion: "Her husband was at work and her three kids were in an after-school program." The woman's husband, Dindail Boobram, told the NY Times that his wife didn't show up to pick up the kids.

The house was completely leveled and the NY Times reported the "resulting fire quickly spread to three neighboring ones, creating an inferno that prompted the evacuation of the entire street." Houses shook and debris flew into the neighborhood, frightening residents. Two neighboring homes were badly damaged and may be condemned. Several other people, including residents, firefighters and a Con Ed worker, were injured.

According to the Daily News, neighbors Stanley and Vita Barth noticed their electricity was off and called Con Ed. Twenty minutes later, they called again when they smelled gas; Stanely Barth said, "They came pretty promptly." After finding evidence of a gas leak in their basement, the utility worker went outside to check the manhole—and then the house across the street exploded. The Times offers the timeline: Con Ed received the gas leak call at 3:35 p.m., a crew arrived at 4 p.m., and the manhole cover was removed around 4:30 p.m.

Con Ed spokesman Chris Olert wasn't immediately sure if other gas leaks were reported in the area, but told the News the manhole cover removal may not be the cause, "There are scores of things that can trigger this, but what would need to have happened is a spark in the sewer. Our guys open manholes on a regular basis."

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By Jen Chung in News on April 25, 2009 9:32 AM

Comments [rss]

misz.cutie12

This is NOT far. This is my aunt that died. MY AUNT!! She has 3 kids and the oldest one is 10. Yeah, there so sad because there mother died. She was a good person. Con-Edison should feel guilty it's wrong of them. It's there fault. These kids and the father have nothing at all. It all burned in the explosion. Everything, they don't have the everyday essentials that they need. And it's hard for me to look at them with there sad faces. It's three boys and a single father now. God, why did you do this to the kids? You could have saved there mother for the kids sake. It's just not far at all. Not at all. :(

Peter

About 20 to 25 years ago an aunt of mine was lying on the sofa in her house in Connecticut watching TV when a deafening explosion made the whole house rock and actually knocked her off the sofa onto the floor. Her immediate thought was that a car had exploded in the street in front of the house. She ran outside, along with other similarly startled people on the block, and saw ... nothing. It turned out that a house had blown up from a gas explosion almost a quarter-mile away.