The disastrous, fatal East Village explosion and fire on March 26 has left a huge hole on Second Ave., two men dead and one huge question unanswered — namely, how could this tragedy ever have been allowed to happen in the first place?
The investigation is focusing on suspected gas siphoning involving 121 Second Ave., where the explosion occurred, and possibly also 119 Second Ave., a building that was owned by the same landlord.
Back in August, Con Ed inspectors found that the gas line servicing Sushi Park, the Japanese restaurant on 121 Second Ave.’s ground floor, had been illegally tapped with flexible hoses that were reportedly diverting gas to residential apartments upstairs.
Smelling gas and finding multiple leaks in the jury-rigged system, Con Ed shut off the gas until the dangerous situation was fixed. A master-plumber self-certified that the situation had been remedied. The gas was then turned back on — but city inspectors never subsequently returned to check if the illegal practice had recurred.
Often, when a convicted felon gets out of prison, he or she is on parole for a while. People who knowingly — or even unknowingly — illegally divert highly combustible gas, similarly, should be monitored to ensure they are not continuing to do so as soon as the inspectors look the other way.
Currently, tough, the Department of Buildings has no such safeguards. Con Ed merely alerts D.O.B. when it shuts off gas to a building — but the utility needs to provide much more detailed information to the city, in terms of why the gas was locked, specifically if it was due to a highly dangerous condition that could potentially recur. After all, if a person taps a gas line once, wouldn’t they just do it again given the chance — especially if there’s little-to-no follow-up?
Con Ed, for its part, maintains it did its job properly at 121 Second Ave., but the utility now also says it is going to cooperate with the city to tighten up this process.
In a statement to The Villager, Con Ed said: “We followed procedure by turning off the gas on Aug. 6 after finding the rigged-up hosing and finding leaks. We then notified D.O.B. within 90 days (Sept. 4, in fact). Also, we will be working with the city to see what other changes in the process they want to make.”
As for whether it should have raised red flags to Con Ed inspectors two weeks ago that the upstairs apartments at 121 Second Ave. didn’t have any gas service, the utility deflected that question; Con Ed was there only to check on the metering systems for a new second gas line to the building, but found that the new meters had been placed in too tight of a space, and so didn’t turn the gas on for the new line, the utility said.
“Our inspectors who went to 121 Second Ave. the afternoon of March 26 were there to inspect work that was done in connection with the installation of the new service,” the utility told us. “They were not there to conduct a survey as to who had gas and who didn’t.”
The city increasingly has been moving toward natural gas for heating. Yes, it’s better environmentally than heating oil — but what about safety?
“Natural gas is a clean, safe source of energy,” the utility told us. “The delivery of any form of energy poses risks.”
Con Ed also sent us a fact sheet about natural-gas conversions, but we didn’t find anything specific about safety in it.
The city, not Con Ed, is conducting the investigation into the explosion, the utility added.
A recent New York Times article, “East Village gas explosion reveals problems in city’s inspection system,” reported that Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris says the city will now be trying to follow up “in a more focused way” regarding “people who have a history of problematic behavior.”
Meanwhile, in the wake of the disaster — which felled three buildings, killed two young men and displaced scores of local families — landlord Maria Hrynenko, contractor Dilber Kukic and a plumber — who had been doing the actual work on the new gas-metering service in the basement — are all said to be frantically pointing fingers at each other as to who was ultimately responsible for the gas tapping at 121 Second Ave. It’s suspected that after Con Ed’s inspectors left on March 26, someone may have promptly tried to hook up the illegal system again, but botched the job, leading to the disastrous explosion and fire.
For his part, Kukic is already facing charges from an earlier incident when he allegedly tried to bribe a building inspector.
Criminally negligent homicide charges are now likely, according to police sources, the Daily News reported. And these charges are entirely justified — two lives were taken, and many, many more could have been lost. Someone now must pay.
