St Marks Place. Maybe a gas leak because there is a restaurant on the bottom.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/explosion-shreds-east-village-restaurant-article-1.2163547
Gas leaks happen all the time in NYC - especially with a restaurant on the ground floor.
We had one in my building once and I was out there alerting people after I called FDNY...and most people said, Oh, I thought I smelled gas but I wasn’t sure I should call ConEd or the Fire Department. This because landlords got upset if you called in a gas leak. I called in to FDNY and there was a truck out there in no time, they shut off the gas and found that a fly-by-night contractor hired by the landlord had moved a stove and forgotten to turn off the gas connection. With one spark...including an electrical spark, such as a light switch or door bell, the entire building could have gone up if the gas had accumulated much more.
The thing that stunned me was the passivity of everybody sitting there smelling gas and not doing anything. But with virtually every gas explosion in New York, you’ll see interviews with the neighbors, who said, “Well, I thought I smelled gas all day, but I didn’t want to call...”
Why not?