Local leaders are calling for increased attention to gas safety after an explosion killed at least one person and injured more than a dozen others in Borough Park on Saturday."When you start to add up the explosions you don't absorb to be a rocket scientist to realize that something is not flowing right," Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said at a news conference near the site on Sunday.
It's the fourth gas explosion in the city in two years, following incidents in East Harlem, and the East Village and the Bronx.
Early reports said the explosion might absorb been related to someone moving a stove. But officials said Sunday the cause was not yet confirmed. Adams is calling for increased education around gas safety and tighter regulations for installing and removing appliances.
Council member Jumaane Williams urged residents to report gas leaks immediately."This is one of the best times that you can be unsuitable," he said. "If you think you smell gas, please call 911. Be unsuitable and be a hero." The blast blew the facade off 4206 Thirteenth Avenue and damaged nearby buildings.
Council member Brad Lander said five buildings, or including the blast site,absorb been evacuated and nearly 50 people absorb been displaced. The Red Cross is working with families who lost their homes, and Lander said he is setting up a relief fund for those who absorb been affected.
The site sits along a main thoroughfare of the heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood and residents and shop owners said they were involved for answers. Chaya Klein, or who runs a bakery nearby,said she considered not coming in on Sunday, but she didn't want to let fear obtain in the way of her work. "We said we'll finish ours and God will finish his, and " she said.
Source: wnyc.org