A building in Manhattan’s East Village has exploded and collapsed, and injuries are being reported.
Just around 3:20pm today, an explosion happened at a mixed residential and commercial building, at the corner of 7th Street and Second Avenue.
The Fire Department has already reported at least 12 injuries, four of which were critical, and were actively battling the SEVEN alarm blaze!
The original building that exploded apparently collapsed and the fire spread to adjacent buildings, too. Over 250 firefighters were called to the scene.
Some NY-area celebs have reacted, tweeting:
Praying for those in/around this horrible #BreakingNews in NY. #eastvillage fires. One building collapsed, 2 more on fire. Brutal news day
— Carson Daly (@CarsonDaly) March 26, 2015
So so sad for those injured and affected by today's explosion and fire in the east village. Praying for them. ├ó┬¥┬ñ├»┬╕┬Å├░┼╕Γäó┬Å— Sara Bareilles (@SaraBareilles) March 26, 2015
I grew up across the street. Thinking of my childhood neighborhood. Explosion shreds East Village, building collapses http://t.co/yX290e3muH— Sarah Hyland (@Sarah_Hyland) March 26, 2015
Holy shit just got out of @HuffingtonPost building to see this- really hope everyone is ok pic.twitter.com/kaEQbwMH4O
— Jason Biggs (@JasonBiggs) March 26, 2015
Very sad to hear about the building explosion here in NYC! Praying for everyone involved!— Hailey Baldwin (@haileybaldwin) March 26, 2015
You okay, New York??? Thinking of you.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) March 26, 2015
Courageous Fire Fighters here in NYC. No hesitation.
— Jessica Veronica (@Jessicaveronica) March 26, 2015
The fire in the East Village is right around the corner from where I used to live…
— Mara Wilson (@MaraWritesStuff) March 26, 2015
Despite the sirens & smoke, Aaron, Cleo and I are okay in the East Village. In shock about this collapse, fire. http://t.co/UUglTlQQGn
— Janet Mock (@janetmock) March 26, 2015
NY area gas company Con Edison tweeted:
We are shutting down gas in the #EastVillage area of 2nd Ave
— Con Edison (@ConEdison) March 26, 2015
So signs are pointing to gas leak…
One Twitter user, author Scott Westerfeld, was basically live-tweeting the whole thing! His series of tweets read:
123 Second Ave. (Pommes Fritte?) has exploded. The entire front of the ground floor got blown halfway across the street. Lots of people down
— Scott Westerfeld (@ScottWesterfeld) March 26, 2015
Pommes fritte is a belgian fries shop full of boiling oil. This is not going to be good at all. About thirty emergency vehicles on site.
— Scott Westerfeld (@ScottWesterfeld) March 26, 2015
I just heard a very loud boom. Set off car alarms, etc. Civilians were helping people out from wreckage blown across the street.
— Scott Westerfeld (@ScottWesterfeld) March 26, 2015
NYPD Bomb Squad is here. (Given the presence of a shop full of boiling oil, I don’t think this is terrorism.)
— Scott Westerfeld (@ScottWesterfeld) March 26, 2015
It was definitely the ground floor that blew. The front was blown out into the street, stopped by a phone booth. (So they’re still useful.)
— Scott Westerfeld (@ScottWesterfeld) March 26, 2015
The fire is almost down to smoke now. FDNY may have saved the adjoining buildings. Still four streams of water on it.
— Scott Westerfeld (@ScottWesterfeld) March 26, 2015
This is so scary!!
There isn’t a lot of solid information because the emergency is still going on but as of right now, signs are pointing towards a potential gas leak issue.
Check out the video (below) to get a look at all the chaos.
[Image via Twitter.]
Related Posts
-
Categories
