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SAWHORSE
Months Before East Village Blast, Utility Found Gas Line Was Tapped in Dangerous Way
By PATRICK McGEEHAN and JIHA HAM
MARCH 28, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/nyregion/months-before-east-village-blast-utility-found-gas-line-was-tapped-in-dangerous-way.html?_r=0
More than seven months before an explosion and fire destroyed three buildings in the East Village on Thursday, utility workers discovered that the gas line to a restaurant in one of them had been tapped in a dangerous way, Consolidated Edison and the restaurant’s owner said on Saturday.
After detecting a “strong odor” of gas in the basement of 121 Second Avenue on Aug. 6, the utility workers found “multiple leaks” in hoses that had been connected to the line, creating a “hazardous situation,” said Philip O’Brien, a spokesman for Con Edison. That discovery led Con Edison to shut off all gas to the building for about 10 days, until the utility deemed it safe to restore the service, Mr. O’Brien said.
Firefighters on Saturday searched the rubble after an explosion and fire leveled three buildings in the East Village on Thursday.
Two Men Remain Missing as Remnants of Explosion Are Scoured in Manhattan
Mayor Bill de Blasio visited the area on Friday.
A memorial for Moises Ismael Locón Yac, 27, a native of Guatemala, in his Elmhurst, Queens, room. It was set up by his roommate and cousin Pablo Yac.
City officials said they suspected that leaking natural gas was the source of the explosion and fire that destroyed 121 Second Avenue and two neighboring buildings. More than 20 people were injured, four critically. Two people who were in the restaurant, Sushi Park, were still missing on Saturday.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office and the city’s Department of Investigation are among the agencies looking into the explosion. The authorities were focusing on plumbing and gas line work being done at the building, and officials said they were exploring whether a gas line in the building had been tapped inappropriately.
On Saturday, the owner of Sushi Park, Hyeonil Kim, provided more details about the gas leak Con Edison responded to last summer. “We smelled gas, so we dialed 911,” he said.
He said firefighters and Con Edison employees arrived and the utility workers determined that gas intended for the restaurant was being siphoned off — he called it illegal gas-tapping — for use in the newly renovated apartments upstairs in the five-story building.
Mr. Kim, who speaks Korean, said he did not fully understand the utility’s explanation, so he contacted his landlord. He said the landlord hired a plumber to do a “piping job” that satisfied Con Edison’s demands for repair.
In the interim, Mr. Kim said, Sushi Park’s staff had to make do with electric appliances and portable gas stoves that he purchased. “Luckily, you don’t really need much gas for a Japanese restaurant,” Mr. Kim said. “I could handle the situation with those rice cookers.”
Mr. Kim said that he was interviewed by the police on Saturday and they told him that the upstairs tenants had not gone one day without gas. How they obtained the gas needed to operate their stoves and water heaters since then is unclear.
One tenant at 121 Second Avenue, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he could not recall any significant disruption in gas service to his apartment since he moved there in midsummer. He shared a text message his roommate received from their landlord, Maria Hrynenko, on Aug. 6, the day Con Edison shut off the gas. It said that the gas would be off for a day because of a cracked main pipe outside the building. After a brief interruption, he said, the apartment had gas right up to Thursday.
Mr. Kim said he had frequently checked to make sure his gas line was not tapped again. He said he had checked within the last month and had never seen any sign of tampering. That is why, he said, he suspected the landlord had chosen instead to draw gas for the apartments from the building next door, at 119 Second Avenue.
That building, like 121 Second Avenue, was owned by a company controlled by Ms. Hrynenko, real estate records show. Ms. Hrynenko’s son, Michael, was injured in Thursday’s explosion after he and a general contractor, Dilber Kukic, went to check out a report of a gas odor at Sushi Park.
The manager of the restaurant called the landlord to report the odor, which is added to natural gas to make it smell like rotten eggs. But neither the manager nor anyone else called 911 or Con Edison to report a possible leak, city officials and Con Edison representatives said.
Instead, Mr. Hrynenko and Mr. Kukic headed to the basement of 121 Second Avenue to investigate. As soon as they arrived, city officials said, the explosion rocked the neighborhood.
“I know everyone is blaming me for this,” Mr. Kim said. He said some people blame him or the manager for not calling 911. “But who would call 911 when you know there is plumbing work going on?” he said. “Asking the landlord what was going on would be the best way to handle the situation.”
Ms. Hrynenko could not be reached for comment on Saturday. Mark A. Bederow, a lawyer representing Mr. Kukic, declined to comment “on any investigative matter while this is still a fluid situation and victims are unaccounted for.”
By PATRICK McGEEHAN and JIHA HAM
MARCH 28, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/nyregion/months-before-east-village-blast-utility-found-gas-line-was-tapped-in-dangerous-way.html?_r=0
More than seven months before an explosion and fire destroyed three buildings in the East Village on Thursday, utility workers discovered that the gas line to a restaurant in one of them had been tapped in a dangerous way, Consolidated Edison and the restaurant’s owner said on Saturday.
After detecting a “strong odor” of gas in the basement of 121 Second Avenue on Aug. 6, the utility workers found “multiple leaks” in hoses that had been connected to the line, creating a “hazardous situation,” said Philip O’Brien, a spokesman for Con Edison. That discovery led Con Edison to shut off all gas to the building for about 10 days, until the utility deemed it safe to restore the service, Mr. O’Brien said.
Firefighters on Saturday searched the rubble after an explosion and fire leveled three buildings in the East Village on Thursday.
Two Men Remain Missing as Remnants of Explosion Are Scoured in Manhattan
Mayor Bill de Blasio visited the area on Friday.
A memorial for Moises Ismael Locón Yac, 27, a native of Guatemala, in his Elmhurst, Queens, room. It was set up by his roommate and cousin Pablo Yac.
City officials said they suspected that leaking natural gas was the source of the explosion and fire that destroyed 121 Second Avenue and two neighboring buildings. More than 20 people were injured, four critically. Two people who were in the restaurant, Sushi Park, were still missing on Saturday.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office and the city’s Department of Investigation are among the agencies looking into the explosion. The authorities were focusing on plumbing and gas line work being done at the building, and officials said they were exploring whether a gas line in the building had been tapped inappropriately.
On Saturday, the owner of Sushi Park, Hyeonil Kim, provided more details about the gas leak Con Edison responded to last summer. “We smelled gas, so we dialed 911,” he said.
He said firefighters and Con Edison employees arrived and the utility workers determined that gas intended for the restaurant was being siphoned off — he called it illegal gas-tapping — for use in the newly renovated apartments upstairs in the five-story building.
Mr. Kim, who speaks Korean, said he did not fully understand the utility’s explanation, so he contacted his landlord. He said the landlord hired a plumber to do a “piping job” that satisfied Con Edison’s demands for repair.
In the interim, Mr. Kim said, Sushi Park’s staff had to make do with electric appliances and portable gas stoves that he purchased. “Luckily, you don’t really need much gas for a Japanese restaurant,” Mr. Kim said. “I could handle the situation with those rice cookers.”
Mr. Kim said that he was interviewed by the police on Saturday and they told him that the upstairs tenants had not gone one day without gas. How they obtained the gas needed to operate their stoves and water heaters since then is unclear.
One tenant at 121 Second Avenue, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he could not recall any significant disruption in gas service to his apartment since he moved there in midsummer. He shared a text message his roommate received from their landlord, Maria Hrynenko, on Aug. 6, the day Con Edison shut off the gas. It said that the gas would be off for a day because of a cracked main pipe outside the building. After a brief interruption, he said, the apartment had gas right up to Thursday.
Mr. Kim said he had frequently checked to make sure his gas line was not tapped again. He said he had checked within the last month and had never seen any sign of tampering. That is why, he said, he suspected the landlord had chosen instead to draw gas for the apartments from the building next door, at 119 Second Avenue.
That building, like 121 Second Avenue, was owned by a company controlled by Ms. Hrynenko, real estate records show. Ms. Hrynenko’s son, Michael, was injured in Thursday’s explosion after he and a general contractor, Dilber Kukic, went to check out a report of a gas odor at Sushi Park.
The manager of the restaurant called the landlord to report the odor, which is added to natural gas to make it smell like rotten eggs. But neither the manager nor anyone else called 911 or Con Edison to report a possible leak, city officials and Con Edison representatives said.
Instead, Mr. Hrynenko and Mr. Kukic headed to the basement of 121 Second Avenue to investigate. As soon as they arrived, city officials said, the explosion rocked the neighborhood.
“I know everyone is blaming me for this,” Mr. Kim said. He said some people blame him or the manager for not calling 911. “But who would call 911 when you know there is plumbing work going on?” he said. “Asking the landlord what was going on would be the best way to handle the situation.”
Ms. Hrynenko could not be reached for comment on Saturday. Mark A. Bederow, a lawyer representing Mr. Kukic, declined to comment “on any investigative matter while this is still a fluid situation and victims are unaccounted for.”
