Thursday, March 12, 2015

NEW YORK CITY MARKS ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF DEADLY HARLEM BUILDING NATURAL GAS EXPLOSION. 6 DIED, MORE THAN 60 INJURED ON MARCH 12, 2014.












MARCH 12, 2015

NEW YORK, NY

Nilsa Aguila broke down in tears Thursday morning while remembering her cousin, who was killed a year ago today in a Harlem gas explosion that claimed eight lives and injured more than 60 others. 

“She was always happy, very helpful,” 42-year-old Aguila tearfully told reporters at a vigil marking the one-year anniversary of the explosion. “She was God-fearing, and she loved to dance, she loved to dance, she loved to dance -- merengue, anything.” 

On the morning of March 12, 2014, Aguila’s cousin, 44-year-old Griselde Camacho, was in her apartment at 1644 Park Ave. at 116th Street -- one of the two buildings leveled by a massive explosion caused by a gas leak. 

Camacho, a security guard at Hunter College, died in the blast, and her mother, Carmen Quinones, was badly injured. 

“Without warning, their world changed in an instant,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told mourners at the vigil Thursday in front of the empty lot where Camacho’s building once stood. Family members of the victims, as well as community members and elected officials, held lit candles. 

“Nothing would’ve told them that morning that so much was about to change, and so much pain was about to occur,” the mayor said. “We lost eight good people.” 

“But as is so often true in this city, in the midst of tragedy, New Yorkers show us something so strong and so resilient and so good as an answer to the suffering,” he continued. “We saw acts of heroism and bravery and compassion.” 

The mayor thanked NYPD and FDNY first responders for rushing to the scene, noting that one officer “pulled an injured boy from the rubble before he was in even greater danger.” 

Today @BilldeBlasio wore an FDNY jacket as he remembered the victims of the East Harlem explosion. pic.twitter.com/RvGrHICYw9

— FDNY (@FDNY) March 12, 2015
And, the mayor added, local residents and passersby also saved lives.
“An ex-marine who saved an FBI agent who happened to be on the scene when the explosion occurred,” de Blasio said, listing people who helped. “If the ex-marine hadn’t come by, we might’ve lost that public servant. There was a deliveryman who rescued a great-grandmother.” 

At 9:31 a.m., City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito led the crowd in a moment of silence to mark the exact moment the buildings exploded.
Mark-Viverito then read aloud the names of those lost: George Amadeo, Rosaura Barrios-Vasquez, Giselde Camacho, Rosaura Hernandez, Mayumi Nakamura, Andreas Panagopoulos, Alexis Salas and Carmen Tanco.

As the names were read and people bowed their heads, a Metro-North train roared past on aboveground tracks overhead. (Last year's explosion was so powerful that debris landed on the tracks, temporarily shutting down train service.) 

When the reading of the names was complete, a choir of local school children sang "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow." 

The mayor’s office said in a statement Thursday that the Mayor’s Fund provided support to nearly everybody affected by the tragedy, raising over $420,000, of which $270,000 in aid was given directly to victims. 

The mayor’s office says it also accelerated scheduled infrastructure repairs in the city after the blast. The Department of Environmental Protection, which received an extra $300 million in city funding for 2016-2018, is working with utility companies Con Edison -- which operated the leaky Harlem gas line -- and National Grid to repair aging gas and water pipes. 

Griselde Camacho's family notified the city recently that it plans to file a $40 million lawsuit against the city; it will be the first of the victims' families to do so. Con Edison likely will also be a defendant in the lawsuit, the Camacho family's lawyer said. The utility company has maintained that it checked the area for gas leaks in the weeks leading up to the blast. 

The mayor’s office said Thursday that more than 90 percent of the 60 ground-floor establishments damaged in the explosion have re-opened.
Dimitri Gatanas, a co-owner of the nearby Urban Garden Center, which was partially destroyed in the explosion, thanked the city for helping him get back on his feet. 

“It’s been a tough year getting through this, but because we’re all here together is how we did get through this,” he said. “And I really appreciate it all the efforts of all the city agencies and our neighbors and friends.” 

On the sidewalk by the site of the explosion, Gatanas and area residents have planted a Yoshino cherry tree. The box in which the tree is planted, Gatanas explained, is made with wood from a beam of one of the buildings that exploded. 

“This tree will eventually grow five stories tall, just like the buildings that once stood,” he said Thursday. “They’ll be blooming when you are thinking about family members. The tree will be blooming and this tree will be a source of love and inspiration for everyone in our community.”

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HARLEM EXPLOSION CAUSES COLLAPSE OF 2 BUILDINGS, MULTIPLE DEATHS REPORTED

MARCH 12, 2014

HARLEM, NY

Two buildings collapsed in East Harlem on Wednesday morning after a massive explosion, leaving at least six people dead.

The buildings, which collapsed around 9:30 a.m., were located at 1644 and 1646 Park Avenue, between 116th and 117th streets. Local hospitals treated at least 69 people for injuries, according to NBC New York. The Associated Press reported that as of Wednesday evening, there were still nine people missing.
One of the victims was identified as Griselde Camacho, 44, a public safety sergeant at Hunter College. The school's president, Jennifer Raab, confirmed Camacho's death in a statement, saying, "our hearts go out to Griselde's family at this terrible time."

Dental hygienist Carmen Tanco, 67, Rosaura Hernandez Barrios, 22, and three others also perished in the building collapse, The New York Times reported. The last three victims were discovered overnight and have not yet been identified.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a press conference that the explosion was caused by a gas leak. In a statement to the New York Daily News, Con Edison confirmed that neighbors called in to complain about the smell of gas just 18 minutes before the explosion.

“This is a tragedy of the worst kind because there was no indication in time to save people,” de Blasio said. 

The New York City Fire Department responded to a 5-alarm fire at the scene of the collapse.

"The way the building imploded after the explosion, it must have happened on the bottom floor," said Carmen Vargas-Rosa, an employee at the Spanish Christian Church located in one of the buildings that collapsed. "The only thing I can see doing that much damage is a gas explosion."

Vargas-Rosa said she hadn't heard from many of the tenants who lived in the apartments above the church. She said at least 14 tenants and their children lived in the buildings.

"We could feel the boom," said neighbor Gus Cortez, 36. "We ran outside and we could see that the buildings had fallen. There was a lot of fire. People were scared."

The blast occurred near the Metro-North train tracks in Harlem, and service was suspended in and out of Grand Central Terminal as workers cleared debris. Trains were up and running again by the afternoon.
 Source:huffingtonpost.com