Two East Harlem Buildings Collapse After Explosion and Fire [Updated]

Two buildings at 116th Street and Park Avenue — right next to the Metro-North tracks — have collapsed after an explosion and fire at that started at around 9:30 a.m. The FDNY says that 39 units (that's 168 members) have responded to the five-alarm fire at the scene, which was visible from midtown. At least 16 people have been injured, four of them seriously, and two have died, according to city officials. Others are still missing. "This is an occupied building, there were people living there, we have people missing," an official told the New York Times. "There was a complete collapse; the fire is still going so we can’t make a search. There will be fatalities."

The five-story buildings contained at least a dozen apartments between them. The cause of the explosion isn't completely clear yet, though a Con Ed spokesman told WNBC-TV that they were responding to a possible gas leak just before the explosion occured. Con Ed workers on the scene also say that they have detected high levels of gas, though they still cannot access the building. "For weeks we've been smelling gas," 21-year-old Ashley Rivera told the New York Daily News. "We saw people flying out of the window ... Those are my neighbors." "It was loud, like boom, boom!" another witness, 23-year-old Mitch Abreu, told the paper. "It rocked the whole block. A window blew out of the other shop down the street."

Metro-North service coming in and out of Grand Central has been halted, as the nearby tracks are covered in debris. Passengers on the southbound Metro-North train that passed 116th Street just before the explosion told the Timesthat the train "shook violently," and that the "impact felt like the last car had been hit broadside by something large." Vibrations from explosion and collapse were felt all the way up to 150th Street, residents report.