March 26, 2015
Mayor Bill de Blasio: We want to give you an update about
the tragedy that's occurred here at 2nd Avenue and 7th Street. Everything we're
going to tell you is preliminary, based on the information we have at this
moment. Obviously, investigation underway – a lot of information being
gathered, so we'll be giving you regular updates.
I'd like to first
acknowledge and thank for joining us Fire Commissioner Dan Nigro, OEM
Commissioner Esposito, NYPD Commissioner Bratton, our first deputy commissioner
– our First Deputy Mayor Tony Shorris, Buildings Commissioner Chandler, CAU
Commissioner Carrion, HPD Commissioner Been. We have with us the president of Con
Ed Craig Ivey. I'd also like to thank the elected officials who have joined us
– Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Council Member Rosie Mendez, and
Senator Brad Hoylman. Others will be joining us.
The explosion here in
the East Village affected four buildings. They are 119, 121, 123 and 125 2nd
Avenue. The actual explosion occurred in 121, caused it to partially collapse,
and 123 collapsed as well.
Preliminary evidence
suggests a gas-related explosion. That investigation is ongoing. The initial
impact appears to have been caused by plumping and gas work that was occurring
inside 121 2nd Avenue. FDNY and all our first responders have responded. It is
now a seven-alarm incident for FDNY, so they’ve been battling heavy fire
conditions – so far, have contained the fire those four buildings. That’s
an ongoing operation. And again, elements of FDNY, NYPD, OEM, DOB, HPD, and of
course Con Ed are all at the scene.
We have the
Department of Environmental Protection hazmat operation responding to check for
the environmental impact and the health impact. The health department has
information on its website regarding any health risk related to smoke – that’s
nyc.gov/health.
A reception station
has been set up at PS 63 – PS 63 at 121 East Third Street. This is a Red
Cross site now to support residents of the buildings, neighbors, family
members.
We want everyone to
know you can call 3-1-1. If you want to report someone who may be missing or if
you want to check on the access of someone who has been identified so far, you
can call 3-1-1.
At this moment, we
know of 12 individuals who are injured, three of whom are in critical
condition. Now, again, this is a constantly evolving situation, so this is
preliminary information. 12 individuals confirmed injured in this incident,
three in critical condition.
Our thoughts and our
prayers are with every one of them and their families. And of course, we are
praying that no other individuals are found injured, and that there are no
fatalities, but that is an ongoing effort that FDNY and all other first
responders are involved in.
I want to also
commend the FDNY. This is a complex and difficult operation they’re mounting
here, obviously doing everything they can to search for anyone who still may be
in those buildings, but also to ensure that there’s not spread of fire to the
surrounding buildings. And the FDNY, as usual, is doing an extraordinary job
handling this very, very difficult situation.
Just a few words in
Spanish and then I’ll turn to Commissioner Nigro and Commissioner Esposito.
[Mayor de Blasio
speaks in Spanish]
With that, I’d like
to call up our fire commissioner, Dan Nigro, to give you a further update.
Commissioner Daniel
Nigro, FDNY: Thank you, mayor.
And I would say it is a seventh alarm and there are approximately 250 of our
members here on the scene. This first call came in at 17 minutes after 3, and
our members arrived in less than three minutes to a scene they certainly didn’t
expect – to see that this explosion blew the front of 121 across the
street. They, for the first 15 minutes, before the building started to
collapse, made extremely dangerous searches of these buildings to search for
any victims, and were forced out by the subsequent collapse of 123 and 121.
Right now, we are fighting a fire in 119, which was fully involved in fire that
extended after the explosion. And that building is in danger of possible
collapse, which is why we have that area cleared. We will be here for a very
long night, and we will keep the area secure and keep our members and the
public, of course, out of that possible collapse zone.
Mayor: Thank you, commissioner. Now, before
I turn to Commissioner Esposito, I just want to thank the Speaker of the New
York City Council, Melissa Mark-Viverito, for joining us. I’d now like to
present our emergency management commissioner, Joe Esposito.
Commissioner Joseph
Esposito, OEM: Thank you, Mayor.
The mayor and Dan Nigro talked on the majority of the issues, but again, just a
reminder – the school is open, P.S. 63, that's a relocation center. We have
people there, the Red Cross has people there. If you have issues with housing,
go there, and we will find locations for you. At this type of incident, it's
always – environmentally, we have concerns about the air. We put out a message
about what to do – keep your windows closed as much as possible while the fire
is on. If you have any kind of concern – if you are asthmatic, any kind of
medical needs, please, if you feel any distress, call 9-1-1 immediately. But
again, keep your windows closed and limit your time outside as much as
possible. We'll be dealing with the debris. We have a debris task force in
place. We're trying to give rid of debris as fast as possible also.
Mayor: Thank you very much. We'll take
questions now. Jonathan.
Question: Mr. Mayor, do [inaudible]?
Mayor: At this moment, we have no reports of
additional missing persons, thank God, and that's an evolving situation. And
again, that 3-1-1 call is crucial – if anyone does know of someone missing, we
need them to call 3-1-1 and tell us. But as of at least a few minutes ago, we
had no reports of any additional people who were believed to be missing.
Yeah.
Question: Two-part question [inaudible]
Mayor: Yeah.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: I'm sorry. Dan.
Question: [inaudible]
FDNY Commissioner Dan
Nigro: For the second
question, I think it's still too early. What we do know is that some work was
going on in the building at the time, prior to the explosion. When our members
arrived, some of the folks had self-evacuated, of course, and they were taken
care of – first aid – and we looked for additional victims.
Question: [inaudible]
Commissioner Nigro: The majority of the people
self-evacuated, yes.
Mayor: Sally?
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: The names of the contractors and
plumbers – we're still working on identifying all the individuals and companies
involved, so that's part of the ongoing investigation. But to the best of our
understanding, they were all private companies – it's privately owned
buildings, private companies working in one – in the building, in 121.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: It's just to the best of our
knowledge.
Commissioner Nigro: To the best of our knowledge, they
were working on the gas in the building. That was the work being done, and
right now, the fire marshals and the police department are investigating with
all of the people involved, and I'm sure by the end of tonight we'll know a lot
more.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: I don't know if we have those details
yet. Do you have, or –
Commissioner Nigro: We had two people with burns to their
airways, and another person who had become unconscious following the event, and
was declared in critical condition. I don't have a follow up on their condition
right now.
Question: [inaudible] how concerned are you
[inaudible]?
Mayor: This is – look, this is a very
important moment in terms of assessing our situation, in terms of our buildings
and infrastructure. But let me say, until we know what happened here, we cannot
pass judgment. We need to fully investigate. We especially need to know if
there was any indication of a gas leak, and if the individuals who sensed the
leak did what they were supposed to do, and called 9-1-1 or Con Ed. So, until
we have a further picture, we can't speculate. I will take this occasion to
say, as we said many times after the East Harlem tragedy – any time you smell
gas, you need to call 9-1-1 immediately, or call Con Ed immediately. There's no
reason to debate, there's no reason to delay – that call needs to go in immediately.
Note: Here is a portion of the statement released by Con Edison, indicating that no gas leak was reported:
We had no reports of
gas odors in the area prior to the fire and explosion. A survey conducted
yesterday of the gas mains on the block found no leaks. We continue to
work with all agencies on the investigation into the cause, and we are praying
for the recovery of all the injured
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: On the second question, that's what
the investigation will have to yield. We can't speculate until we have gone
through the investigation. The first question?
Commissioner Nigro: The majority of those injured were injured
right at the moment of the explosion, yes. Correct.
Mayor: I'd like to also acknowledge and thank
our Public Advocate Tish James for joining us.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: At this moment, based on evaluation
done by the city, and by Con Ed, we have no indication of any calls having been
received regarding a gas leak.
Question: [inaudible] inside the building
[inaudible]?
Commissioner Nigro: We believe they were inside the
building.
Question: [inaudible]
Commissioner Nigro: Do not know – assume they were workers,
but we do not know that yet.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: Okay, hold on, hold on, everyone will
get a chance. Go ahead?
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: Con Edison was at the building
earlier. You want to do that, or you want – Con Ed? You want to go over it? Con
Ed President Craig Ivey.
Con Ed President
Craig Ivey: We were at the
building earlier today – 2 pm approximately, preliminarily. We were
evaluating the meter installation for a new service that was going to be installed
to the building. There was also a second existing service there.
Question: [inaudible]
Con Ed President Ivey: The new installation did not pass our
inspection at that time, so it meant it wasn’t ready for gas to be introduced.
Mayor: In other words, it’s a private
building – hold on a second – private building where private
contractors are doing work. The preliminary report, because we’re still waiting
to get the full download from the Con Ed crew, is that they observed the work,
it did not pass inspection, they gave further instruction. That was earlier
this afternoon, but again, we are not going to speculate on details until we
have a full report.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: How many people evacuated? Do you
have a sense – either one of you?
Commissioner Nigro: The number we have are 12 persons
that were injured. We don’t know exactly, because some of them haven’t been
spoken to, where they came from in the buildings, but that all we can say is
there are 12 victims.
Mayor: Any non-injured evacuated? No? Okay.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: That’s what we’re waiting for an
investigation on. I understand you guys rightfully are trying to get all the
facts quickly, but we want to make sure they are the facts. So an investigation
is going on. The authorities here have to debrief the Con Ed workers who were
at the site. But the initial preliminary information is Con Ed inspectors
arrived at the site earlier for a separate reason entirely, found the work to
be unacceptable, gave instructions as to what changes were needed – and
that was an hour or more before the explosion.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: Again, there was work going on in the
building. We believe it may have been gas and plumbing, but until we have full
information we can’t confirm that.
Phil Walzak: A couple more please.
Mayor: Couple more, couple more – last
call. Hold on. You go first, then you – go ahead.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: We’re not certain. We’re not certain
until we do the investigation – that’s the point. We’re trying very carefully
not to give you information that proves to be false – so, preliminary
information in all cases, investigation underway to get you final facts.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: As I said earlier, no indication
previous to the actual explosion of any call having been placed reporting a gas
leak to either 9-1-1 or Con Ed. So, 9-1-1 system, we checked calls; Con Ed
checked their calls. No calls have been received in advance of the incident.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: Hold on – one here, and then
you.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: Again, we’ll get them fuller details
after, but see if you can give them the –
Con Ed President Ivey: Again, that’s an existing service
they were upgrading to a larger service. So the inspection today was to
evaluate the metering installation for the larger service – and
preliminarily did not pass that inspection at 2 o’clock.
Question: [inaudible]
Con Ed President Ivey: As I understand it, very
preliminarily, gas was introduced to the head of service, which is just inside
the wall of the building, and it was [inaudible].
Mayor: So, again, until we have further
detail, we’ve got to put those pieces together.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: When did the work start in the
building? I’m not sure if we know exactly that. Do we know when this – okay, we
have to confirm that. And had Con Ed inspected previously recently to the best
of our knowledge? Do we know or do we have to find out?
Con Ed President Ivey: We would have to find out.
Mayor: Okay, we’ll have to find that out.
Phil Walzak: Okay, last call guys.
Mayor: Last call. Going once. Yes –
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: Not at this moment – correct?
Commissioner Nigro: Not at this moment.
Mayor: Thank God – none injured at this
moment.
Yes – last call.
Question: [inaudible]
Mayor: Again, we need to get the facts about
what happened here. We’re obviously concerned to make sure if there’s anything
we can learn from this incident that we address it. But what we do know for
sure, while we’re waiting for all of the facts, is – and I’m asking you all to
emphasize this in your reporting – if people smell gas, they should
immediately call either 9-1-1 or Con Edison. That’s the one thing we know for
sure. Thank you, everyone.
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