Free Republic

MINNEAPOLIS - One person is dead and others are trapped under rubble after a building exploded and collapsed at Minnehaha Academy. The explosion happened at Minnehaha's upper campus on 3100 West River Parkway in Minneapolis.

Federal safety authorities launched an investigation on Thursday into a gas explosion that caused the collapse a day earlier of two New York City apartment buildings, killing seven people and injuring dozens of others. The still-smoldering rubble prevented investigators from getting close enough to examine the main pipe that supplies natural gas to the Upper East Side neighborhood, said Robert Sumwalt, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which reviews accidents involving natural gas. When firefighters say the area is safe, he said, investigators will conduct a pressure test on the pipe to find the location of the leak...

Rep. Charles Rangel called an apparent building explosion and collapse in his home district in Harlem, New York the most “horrific” thing that has hit his home district in his time in Washington and his community’s Sept. 11. “I’ve never had anything this horrific that’s happened in my community since I’ve been in Washington,” Rangel told NBC’s New York affiliate Wednesday as news reports of the fire response continued to come in. “I hope that soon, and very soon, it will be contained and we can go back to some degree of normal normalcy.”

Authorities were responding Wednesday morning to a possible building explosion in uptown New York City, according to multiple reports. A detective told CNN that at least one person had died and the FDNY added that there were aware of 11 minor injuries at this time. According to the New York Times, authorities were also responding of people trapped below the ruble. It was not clear what caused the explosion, but law enforcement officials told CNN that they are not seeing any connection to terrorism at the moment. CNN reported that Con Edison was called moments before the explosion to stop...

Live video feed. Prayers for those affected.

<p>Fox news reporting a large explosion in Harlem, possible building collapse etc.</p>

NEW YORK - The doctor suspected of blowing up his town house rather than allowing his ex-wife to benefit from its sale has died, nearly a week after suffering critical injuries in the blast, a hospital spokeswoman said Sunday. Dr. Nicholas Bartha, 66, died late Saturday, said Mary Halston, an administrator at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Police had been unable to speak to Bartha about the July 10 explosion because he was in a medically induced coma. Authorities have said they were investigating whether he might have caused it rather than sell the town house as part of a divorce...