A fire d & # xfb; gas has partly d & # XE9; destroys a building in the East Village neighborhood, & # xE0, Manhattan, March 26, 2015.
A fire due to gas has partially destroyed a building in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan on March 26, 2015. – AP / SIPA / NYPD

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Latest news (11:00 p.m.): According to a new assessment of the firefighters, there are 12 wounded, including three “critical”. According to the mayor, there is a priori no disappeared and the explosion was due to gas.

A fire tore through a five-story building in New -York in the East Village neighborhood in lower Manhattan on Thursday. A hundred firefighters were mobilized to try to limit the damage that has spread to several nearby buildings and caused the partial collapse of a building. The death toll is 12 wounded, including three “critical”.

According to Mayor De Blasio, it seems that no one is missing and that the explosion was due to gas. Work was underway to upgrade the facility, the building was visited inspectors ConEd, gas and electricity operator of the city, about an hour before the disaster. They have found inadequate safety standards and ordered that the gas is turned off. According to a source from the New York Post , workers have accidentally damaged a pipeline.



Residents escape through the fire escape

Given the extent of the fire, fire alarm triggered the 7th again requesting reinforcements. The building, which houses a sushi restaurant, was partially collapsed. It is located at the intersection of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street. The fire spread to an adjacent building that threatens to collapse, according to firefighters.

According to a witness interviewed on ABC, ten minutes elapsed between the explosion and the first flames visible from the outside, a period during which several people were able to go out the fire escape, aided by passersby.

Spectacular pictures of intervention circulating on Twitter.

New York filmed a resident of the building coming down the fire escape just before the flames invaded the building.

A year after the tragedy of East Harlem

According to ABC, witnesses felt a “strong odor” of natural gas before hearing an explosion. In March 2014, a gas explosion had eight dead and over 70 injured in East Harlem. Poor maintenance of some pipes by ConEd has been singled out by the survey, without liability either for the time engaged

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