NEW YORK – Officials suspect a recently disconnected stove may have caused an apparent gas explosion Saturday that killed a woman and injured three others in Brooklyn.
New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said firefighters received a call around 1 p.m. reporting an explosion at a building on 13th Avenue near 42nd Street in the Borough Park neighborhood. When emergency crews arrived, they found the entire front of the three-story building blown into the street, he told reporters at a news conference early Saturday evening.
Officials suspect the explosion originated in an apartment on the second floor, where a tenant had recently disconnected a stove. The fire commissioner said no one had reported smelling gas in the area.
“We are told that the tenant purchased a high-end stove and they were moving out of the apartment and were going to take that stove with them,” Nigro said.
Councilman Brad Lander said the tenant who lived in that apartment had moved out about a week ago.