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6 injured in NYC building gas explosion

By ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - A four-story building housing doctors' offices collapsed and burned in an apparent gas explosion Monday after what witnesses described as a thunderous explosion that rocked the neighborhood just off Madison Avenue.

Six people were injured — two passers-by, one person in the building and three firefighters, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said. He said the only occupant appeared to have been a doctor who owns the building and was rescued from the rubble.

"This could have been an even worse disaster than it already is," Scoppetta said.

Scoppetta said a gas explosion was the apparent cause.

Power company Con Edison said its crews had been responding to complaints from a gas customer at an adjacent building at the time of the blast occurred. Earlier, White House press secretary Tony Snow said there was no indication of terrorism.

Yaakov Kermaier, 36, a resident in a building next door, said he was outside when he heard "a deafening boom. I saw the whole building explode in front of me."

"Everybody started running, nobody knew what was coming next," he said. His nanny and newborn escaped from their next-door apartment unharmed.

The building on Manhattan's Upper East Side included two doctors' offices, and records show at least one apartment was in the building, Fire Department Lt. Eugene Whyte said. Authorities said a nurse who was supposed to open one of the offices arrived late, narrowly missing the explosion.

Heavy black smoke rose high above the building, wedged between taller structures on 62nd Street between Park and Madison Avenues just a few blocks from Central Park. Bricks, glass and splintered wood was littered across the block, and windows in a neighboring building were blown out.

Thad Milonas, 57, was operating a coffee cart across from the building when he said the ground shook and the building came down, said he helped two bleeding women from the scene.

TV host Larry King, who had been in a hotel room nearby, described the explosion to CNN as sounding like a bomb and feeling like an earthquake.

"I've never heard a sound like that," King said.

Streets around the area were closed off to traffic as ambulances and rescue units responded about 8:40 a.m.

The building is an upscale neighborhood where the 2000 Census put the median home price at $1 million. On one corner of the street is the high-end Luca Luca clothing store, and across the street is the French retailer Hermes.

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