ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) – An explosion in northern New Jersey that leveled a duplex “like a pancake” and knocked a next-door neighbor out of bed killed one resident and left two other people in critical condition with severe burns, officials said Wednesday.
In all, 14 people were taken to hospitals, including an 11-year-old who was one of the critically injured, said Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage.
One person was unaccounted for in the Elizabeth blast but may have left the scene voluntarily, the mayor said.
“Based on interviews at the hospital and the investigation of the names of the people in this housing, there is one person that’s not accounted for,” he said. “That’s not to say the person is still in the building. That person could be with friends or relatives, or that person may have self-evacuated.”
The blast leveled the two-family duplex “like a pancake,” Bollwage said. Swarms of fire trucks and rescue trucks crammed the street where the explosion occurred, a scant 100 yards from a busy corridor.