An explosion rumbled through a Flushing, Queens neighborhood after a man was trying to empty out his propane tank. A neighbor said, "I felt the ground move. I thought it was a plane coming down. There was a big rumble...I was in my basement and still felt it. I ran outside and saw debris everywhere."
This weekend there were reports of a bomb going off on South 3rd Street in Williamsburg, during the early morning hours of Sunday. Now the Daily News has more details, confirming that the block between Roebling and Havemeyer was the stage for an explosion around 12:30 a.m. on Sunday.
A little bit before 1 a.m. word came across the newswire that at 221 South 3rd Street, at Roebling Street in Williamsburg, there was a search in progress for "secondary devices" in regards to an explosion. There was a bomb squad on the scene and a staging area set up for EMS at South 5th Street.
Hey, just because the bomb that was set off outside an Upper East Side Starbucks on Monday morning was homemade—"fashioned from a water bottle and the same explosive powder used in fireworks," the Daily News reports—doesn't mean it wasn't a threat to the public. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said,"Had someone been walking by, this could have caused serious injury, if not death." The police also revealed that a "metal bottle cap inscribed with the capital letters VET that was found amid the bomb remnants"— investigators are looking at whether "there's a manufacturer that makes metal bottle caps that contain those letters"—and that the two teens seen fleeing from the scene that morning are described as blond teen in a red shirt and a brown-haired teen in a gray shirt. John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Eugene O'Donnell tells WCBS 2, "Bombings are not easy to solve, sometimes because the forensic evidence is so deteriorated."
The Post reports that investigators doubt Monday's explosion outside an Upper East Side Starbucks is related to the bombings outside the British and Mexican Consulates as well as the Times Square recruiting station. Apparently the "make-up of the bomb -- flash powder stuffed inside a jumbo pill jar -- was not similar to the ones used for the earlier bombings," and the description of the teens seen fleeing the area doesn't match the others bombings' lone bicyclist. The Post adds police are investigating whether the incident is linked to a small explosion at a Starbucks in Providence, RI, but the Seattle coffee company sent us a statement, "We are confident that these two explosions were not linked. Further, though the investigation continues, we actually have no reason to believe that Starbucks specifically was a target for this incident." (Apparently there had been a series of small explosions in plastic bottles in different parts of Providence last year.)
Earlier this morning, around 3:30 a.m., an explosion was reported outside of a building at Third Avenue and 92nd Street. The NYPD is conducting an investigation; according to WCBS 2, "Officials tell CBS 2HD it wasn't a bomb that went off, but an improvised explosive device. The device was planted on a bench outside the Starbucks."
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.
A home on 260th Street in the Floral Park section of Queens exploded this afternoon. Currently, it is a third alarm situation with over 100 firefighters responding to the fire, which has spread to other homes. WCBS 2 reports, "Officials believe the explosion may have been caused by a gas leak. CBS 2 has learned that Con Edison officials had been called to the area earlier Friday after reports of gas fumes coming out of the sewers." So far, reports say two people were injured and that the house was destroyed.
An explosion caused by bug bombs in a Millville apartment left the building in such bad shape that it needed to be condemned following the blast. No one was injured when a pilot light ignited the accelerant inside nine cans of repellent, but it left the kitchen floor sagging, blew out numerous windows on the first floor and moved an exterior wall about two inches. A firefighter on the scene told reporters, "Typically I wouldn't recommend using nine at once. At the end of it all, I don't even think it killed the bugs." A recent explosion of bug bombs in New York hospitalized six people.
A reader sent us the above photos, taken around 3 p.m. today on Spring Street near Varick. As you can see, someone lost a motorcycle today. No one was harmed, the fire was put out and here's to hoping the owner had insurance. Read more at The Abbeville blog.
Last October, a faulty gas line caused an explosion in a Harlem apartment building. The explosion killed a woman and severely burned her four daughters, who have been in hospital burn units. Yesterday, six-year-ld Duaa Al Ghaithi was the last of the girls to return home, after many months of rehab (she will need many more years of therapy). According to NY1, she "wears a head-to-toe compression garment 23 hours a day" which also includes gloves. Duaa's vocal chords were also damaged, but she said, "I'm a female spiderman." Her family has sued the building's owner and Con Ed; apparently there had been complaints about the smell of gas, but the smell was later masked by fresh paint.
A reader has just sent word that a "van just exploded into a fireball, a door flew off and hit a cop car. No one was inside." The tipster, who emailed this photo, tells us this is happened on 38th Street and Lexington Avenue. When pressed for more details, he replied, "I got nothing to offer man. Here's to Fridays! Have a good one." More on this as it comes in, but last year, cabs suddenly burst into flame in Midtown.
In the event of a terrorist bombing, Frank Gehry’s design for the Nets stadium at Atlantic Yards is too close to the curb for comfort, according to Alan Rosner, a retired strategic and business analyst. Gehry’s latest vision for the stadium is less than 25 feet from the street, and though it would use more metal than the previous glass version, Rosner says it isn’t any safer: “Gehry's use of odd angles, dead spaces, hollows and overhangs means that should there ever be a car or truck bomb, the effects would be amplified. According to FEMA, reflected blast waves can be ten or more times as powerful as the initial explosive force.” He's calling for a new environmental review. [Atlantic Yards Report]
Figuring that the best legal defense is to be offensive, ConEd is suing NYC for the 2007 midtown Manhattan steam pipe explosion that killed one woman and horribly burned two other people. Dozens more were injured in the blast that made 41st and Lexington Ave. look like an erupting volcano, as a plume of steam shot high into the air.
The police have taken fingerprints from the bike believed to have been trashed by the Times Square bomber. They are also looking for traces of DNA left on the bike and checking cellphone transmissions in the area during Thursday early morning, which is when a bomb exploded outside the army recruiting center.
The police think the 10-speed bicycle, left near the trash on Thursday morning, belongs to the person who bombed the army recruiting center in Times Square. The bike, left on East 38th Street, was found by some workers who heard about the bombing and contacted the police, who learned of the bike at 7 a.m. (the bombing occurred around 3:45 a.m.).
The FBI said letters sent to many Congressional members with a photograph of a man standing in front of the Times Square recruiting center and an anti-war manifesto were not linked to yesterday's bombing outside the center. A law enforcement source did call the letters an "incredibly unbelievable coincidence," as they arrived in many offices yesterday, after days of sorting (per post-anthrax scare measures).
Some Capitol Hill offices received letters claiming responsibility for this morning's bombing in Times Square. WNBC reports that the letters, which arrived today, included a photo of the Army recruiting center "before it was bombed and...the words 'We did it.'"
The NYPD released surveillance footage of this morning's explosion near the Army recruiting center in Times Square. The footage shows a bicyclist approaching the building and an explosion taking place after he leaves.
Around 3:45 a.m., a device exploded outside the military recruiting center in Times Square. No one was injured, but a glass entryway was shattered.
At the southeast corner of Lafayette and Spring in the SoHo-Nolita area, some sort of event (explosion?) occurred to knock off the heavy grates off the surface. The FDNY and NYPD closed down the street; it didn't look like a steampipe explosion or water main break (no water) - it looks more like an underground transformer vault (if anyone knows what these are, let us know in comments) explosion. The 6 line does run underneath, but there do not seem to be any delays.
An explosion in a Long Island man's basement damaged sheet rock and spread broken glass while shredding a soft cooler Saturday evening, causing Long Island emergency personnel to respond in force. The bomb scare was the result of a show-and-tell gone awry. Francisco Lopes is a researcher at Stony Brook University, who said that he brought home some pieces of dry ice in a sealed glass jar to show his daughter. He left the container in his lunch cooler and left for dinner with family members. Unfortunately, Lopes did not realize what apparently many teenagers are fully aware of: allowing dry ice to warm in a sealed container results in a buildup of gas pressure that ends with a loud bang.
Yesterday's explosion at 1211 Avenue of the Americas (aka 6th Avenue at 48th Street), the building that houses News Corporation and entities like Fox News and the NY Post, was caused by two chemicals reacting together. About 700 people were evacuated from the 42nd to 45th floors as the explosion occurred on the 45th floor, where the mechanic room is located - and where chemicals are stored.
An explosion occurred at the Midtown building that houses News corporation businesses including Fox News and the NY Post. Fox 5 reports that a man was burned in the chemical explosion and 700 people have been evacuated. However, "the explosion has not interrupted the cable news channel's broadcast."
Possibly the most haunting thing we've seen is coverage of the Staten Island woman who had a coat hook pierce her face - and how a plastic surgeon who helped save her face. Fifty-three year-old Geri Rivero was at a co-worker's party last month when she slipped in the bathroom. According to the Daily News, she grabbed the metal coatrack, but "somehow, the hook pierced the bone under her right eye, plowing through muscle and...
At least a few buildings on or near Mercer Street lost power when a fire or an explosion occurred in a manhole at Mercer and West 3rd Street exploded this morning. The block was closed off by the Fire Department. We hear there were no injuries, but it's unclear what caused the fire. One witness saw a billowing black smoke and said it smelled "acrid, like maybe it's an electrical fire." And contributor Gideon...
The gas main explosion that rocked a home on 48th Ave. and 41st. St. Wedneday––killing one woman and injuring six others––occurred despite what ConEd and FDNY say was them following proper procedures preceding the incident. Kunta Oza, who died at the age of 69, was burned over 90% of her body. In addition to the six others injured in the explosion, 200 people were evacuated from the block until it was deemed safe to return....
The 69-year-old woman who was burned over 90% of her body in a gas explosion in her Sunnyside home died yesterday. City Councilman Eric Gioia said, "It is with great regret and sadness that I announce the passing of Kunta Oza. My deepest condolences go out to her entire family, and I ask that all New Yorkers keep them in their Thanksgiving prayers." On Wednesday afternoon, calls were made to 911 about a gas smell...
Yesterday afternoon, a gas explosion in a Sunnyside home burned a 67-year-old woman over 90% of her body. Six other people were also injured, as over 200 people needed to be evacuated and over a hundred firefighters responded. Kunta Oza, who lives in a three-story at 41st Street and 48th Avenue, is at New York Hospital Burn Center in critical condition. WNBC reports that she "sent her grandchildren outside as a precaution. The move might...
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