July 10, 2006
BREAKING: Explosion Causes Upper East Side Building Collapse
A three story building at 34 East 62nd Street, between Madison and Park Avenues, has collapsed. Reports say that there was an explosion and fire. It's unclear if there are any people inside. Fire Department staging is at East 65th Street; expect lots of traffic diversions in that area.
Update: The Times is reporting that Con Ed was in the building next door, investigating a gas leak, when the explosion occurred. The White House also chimed in, saying there's no evidence of terrorism. One fatality has been reported.
Update: Reader Gil sent in a picture of the building via A9. Additionally, there are now reports that the doctor who worked in the building may have tried to commit suicide. A coffee cart operator said he saw at least four injured people.
The Fire Department has called a fifth alarm. On the TV news footage, you can see that windows from neighboring building are blown out.
Update: The Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scopetta says that a gas leak caused the explosion. WNYW reports that he also mentioned the doctor sent a suicide email. A commenter also added:
FWIW: A guy I work with knows the doctor who owns the building. The doctor was involved in a financial dispute with his wife over the building and he may have blown it up to commit suicide and keep her from getting the property. The doctor succeeded in destroying the building but he survived the explosion and he's in the hospital now.Of course, it'll take some time to find out what happened, but if this was a suicide attempt, we find the timing odd because last week, former administrative law judge Larry Feingold was found not guilty of showing "depraved indifference" when his suicide attempt damaged other people's apartments in NYC.
Photographs at top and bottom of the fire and fire department response from Ed Stern on Flickr
|
it's three stories, and people are inside, it's a residence/doctor's office.
did anyone check the DOB site to see if any building permits were issued?
Could be a tenant doing some renovation work (capping gas lines), but then many co-op/condo's don't allow construction work during the summer months. Still could be a rush job to finish.
It seems like it is the space immediately to the right of the green arrow above.
Ralph Penza says it is definitely a residence/doctor's office. When I first heard this, I thought of the UN consulates in the area. Larry King himself called CNN and said he thought it sounded like a bomb.
http://static.flickr.com/61/186397515_c33fa724c4_o.jpg
any place to watch live coverage on a Mac? if you have a PC, check out WCBSTV.com or msnbc.com
Possibly unrelated, but the 4/5 are running on the local track from 125th to Grand Central.
I have photos, from above. I have live coverage in my office, h40 stories above area — However, due to some BS firewall I cannot upload to flickr.com until this evening. DAMN!
OEM says it is not terror related
Whoa - Ron Perelman lives on that block. 35 East 62nd.
my coworker, who takes the 4/5 to work, said he heard that earlier, before the explosion, that someone had been pushed onto the subway tracks. so if the problems on the 4/5/6 line aren't related to the explosion, it could be from that.
alright, now they say 34 east 62nd....
BARTHA, NICHOLAS MD Medical
description: internal, emergency medicine
also, this was there....APW Dental Services, PC
W.J. Schrenk, Jr.
Amazon A9 maps has a picture of the house.
http://maps.a9.com/?mimg=686c71e27611514f65e5ef693e7e395e,1&mstr=E%2062nd%20St&ypLoc=Broadway%20%26%20W%2046th%20St%2C%20New%20York%2C%20NY%2010036&mll=40.76519656719867,-73.9695216888918,40.7587,-73.9853,40.765090714,-73.969794566
For what its worth, 1010WINS is now reporting its a suicide - one of the doctors in the building used a bomb to blow up the building and kill himself.
Several sources are reporting that ConEd was investigating something next door and the fire commissioner is stating that this is a gas explosion.
Can't hear the 1010 Wins report, but Short of finding a suicide note it seems premature for anyone to call it a suicide.
Anyone else reminded of The Weathermen?
WNYW is reporting that Fire commissioner Scoppetta says the doctor sent a suicide e-mail.
Apparently the doctor has survived (again, according to 1010WINS) but is injured - the fire dept. is exploring both the possibility that it was a bomb or that it was some ComEd gas leak. Either way, it's very sad. A fire fighter was badly injured and there's been some damage to the adjacent 10-story building.
FWIW: A guy I work with knows the doctor who owns the building. The doctor was involved in a financial dispute with his wife over the building and he may have blown it up to commit suicide and keep her from getting the property. The doctor succeeded in destroying the building but he survived the explosion and he's in the hospital now.
"WNYW is reporting that Fire commissioner Scoppetta says the doctor sent a suicide e-mail."
Oh.
That really sucks. Bad enough someone wants to kill themself, worse when they ant to take otehrs with them. Email is easy to fake: Hope it's not a setup!
Gothamist reported in their update that "One fatality has been reported." has anyone else heard anything ?
Gothamist reported in their update that "One fatality has been reported." has anyone else heard anything ?
suicide note by email? ahh, the wonders of technology.
Yes, e-mail and any sort of on-line postings can be easily faked. Given the reports that this could all be part of a messy divorce, that means there may be a suspect.
I think we will be seeing the Law & Order treatment of this in the upcoming season.
Holy mack, seeing that pleasant picture of the building intact is quite sad....
The latest news is that at least 4 firefighters were taken to the hospital. This just underscores what a dangerous job they have. These guys are always the first on the scene to help people in serious emergencies like this. I won't ever forget 9/11 when 343 firemen died trying to save the people trapped in the World Trade Center. You can't help but admire them. NYC firemen are the greatest!
no one is reporting a fatility except gothamist
Phil up above is right. I work in the neighborhood & I arrived (from a way delayed downtown 6 train) to find everyone stopping by to give their 2 cents. Apparently he even warned/threatened the wife about blowing up the property! I guess he did not plan on surviving & having to face prosecution. There are an overabundance of bored rich people up here that LIVE to gossip about their neighbors. I guess now I'M partaking. But it's a boring Monday & Dr. Blow Up sounds like a real creep & an asshole.
you're right, at least firemen don't ticket bicyclists.
but what happened to matt long was an accident and the judge saw it as that and dismissed his lawsuit against the TWU.
how many times do I have to tell you, death caused by MVA not TWU. jeez louise.
Yes, NYC fire-people are very good at their jobs. They are very well compensated and have great retirement packages as well.
Um, I just posted something that confirmed Phil's statement above. He's right on the money. But my comment appeared for one moment & then disappeared??? I work right here and a couple of neighborhood biddies stopped by & told my boss that he actually threatened his wife with some act of property destruction. The idle rich up here just LIVE to gossip about their neighbors! So now that he'Dr. Dickhead has survived they'll be a dozen gossips confirming what they heard...
at least firemen don't ticket bicyclists.
but matt long did leave a bad taste trying to sue the TWU for his accident.
thankfully a judge saw that the suit has no merit and dismissed it.
I told you he died from a MVA not TWU.
Um, I just posted something that confirmed Phil's statement above. He's right on the money. But my comment appeared for one moment & then disappeared??? I work right here and a couple of neighborhood biddies stopped by & told my boss that he actually threatened his wife with some act of property destruction. The idle rich up here just LIVE to gossip about their neighbors! So now that Dr. Dickhead has survived they'll be a dozen gossips confirming what they heard about him...
Um, I just posted something that confirmed Phil's statement above. He's right on the money. But my comment appeared for one moment & then disappeared??? I work right here and a couple of neighborhood biddies stopped by & told my boss that he actually threatened his wife with some act of property destruction. The idle rich up here just LIVE to gossip about their neighbors! So now that he'Dr. Dickhead has survived they'll be a dozen gossips confirming what they heard...
Um, I just posted something that confirmed Phil's statement above. He's right on the money. But my comment appeared for one moment & then disappeared??? I work right here and a couple of neighborhood biddies stopped by & told my boss that he actually threatened his wife with some act of property destruction. The idle rich up here just LIVE to gossip about their neighbors! So now that Dr. Dickhead has survived they'll be a dozen gossips confirming what they heard about him...
why are there no photos of the collapsed building? no news choppers or anything?
The divorce was apparently quite awful, based on some of the public court papers (see link below). For the non-lawyers: the Court revised an earlier ruling on the division of property between the couple, finding that Mrs. Bartha was entitled to a larger award based on her receipt of "cruel and inhuman treatment". Amongst other things, the Court found that Dr. Bartha "intentionally traumatized" her, "a woman of Jewish origin born in Nazi-occupied Holland, with swastika-adorned articles and notes affixed around their home, and became enraged when she removed them. He ignored her need for support and assistance while she was undergoing surgery and treatment for breast cancer." Yikes. Move over, George and Martha.
http://www.courts.state.ny.us/REPORTER/3dseries/2005/2005_00481.htm
I have some images of the TV coverage here.
It was suicidal, he wanted to die. So much for his Hypocratical Oath.
I wish him well.
Can you imagine trying to die or kill yourslelf but you can't make it happen. What a drag. He must feel like a loser. He just made his situation a 100 times worse. Why didn't he just give the woman the building. What ego problems.
i snapped some news choppers and an NYPD chopper at eye level, but the news choppers did come out very well. if you go to my page you can see the NYPD chopper as well as firefighters fighting the blaze.
www.flickr.com/photos/edstern
I have some stills from the TV news coverage here.
I have some shots of TV coverage here.
Don't think that the cops didn't do anything!
While the firefighters were putting out the dangerous fires and rushing through the collapsed, smoldering building searching for people, the cops were directing traffic.
Cops don't go into burning buildings when the firefighters are around. Like why risk their own asses if somebody else can do it for them, and do a far better job too.
The police are doing what they do best: direct traffic and eat donuts. I'm sure the plain clothes detectives are on the case anyway.
I have a collection of images from some of the TV coverage from today here.
Does anyone have a collection of images from some of the TV coverage from today?
I am sorry for multiple postings, but I kept getting these funky error messages about some sort of gothamist proxy server problem and they didn't appear.
Holy crap I just checked back in & had no idea about my multiple posts! Ugh, all it said was "Internal server error" after I pressed post so I fugured it wasn't ACTUALLY posting. Sorry, so sorry!