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Here's What Investigators Are Looking For Under East Village Blast Rubble

By Murray Weiss | April 1, 2015 2:46pm
 Workers shift through rubble March 27, 2015, the day  after an explosion leveled an apartment building on 2nd Avenue and Seventh Street.
Workers shift through rubble March 27, 2015, the day after an explosion leveled an apartment building on 2nd Avenue and Seventh Street.
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DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg

MANHATTAN — Investigators combing through the rubble of the deadly East Village explosion are looking for a short, metal-encased hose that they believe was “improperly” hooked up to a restaurant's gas line — igniting the blast that killed two people and leveled three buildings, DNAinfo New York has learned.

The probers suspect that an eight-to-10 foot length of gas-stove piping was being used to siphon fuel from an existing Con Edison feed into a sushi restaurant at 121 Second Ave., sources said. The gas was diverted up to four residential units above the eatery.

The jury-rigged hookup was needed because Con Edison had repeatedly refused to turn on gas to a new, second pipeline since last August due to problems with its installation, "On The Inside" reported last Friday. The second pipe was to be used to provide gas to the rentals in the five story building, which is also under renovation.

In fact, Con Edison inspectors had separately discovered an improper gas tap at the Japanese restaurant last August, which was apparently being used to provide gas to the four rental units. The utility ordered the makeshift tap removed, and turned off gas for a week until the situation was corrected, sources said.

Investigators now suspect that someone reinstalled the improper hookup in the restaurant for the apartments to continue to receive gas. The cost of the additional fuel likely showed up on the restaurant’s Con Edison bill, authorities say.

The disaster could have been averted if the landlord has issued hot plates to tenants, and installed temporary electric hot water heaters during the period the building waited for the second pipe to come online, officials told “On The Inside."

“It would have cost them some money, and perhaps some inconvenience for the tenants, but the dangerous tapping into a gas line would have certainly been avoided,” a source said.

“On the Inside” previously reported that Con Edison workers returned to 121 Second Ave. last Thursday around 2 p.m. to re-inspect the work on the new pipeline.  But the inspectors once again refused to give the line to all-clear, and left without turning on the gas.

The building blew up a short time later just as a contractor and the building owner’s son went to check on a complaint of a gas odor. Probers believe the blast ignited when they turned on a light switch, a source explained.

Officials speculate that since last August there was another “improper” hookup in the restaurant gas line, and that someone removed it before Con Edison inspectors showed up last Thursday.

After they left, investigators believe someone re-installed the pipe, but bungled the repair, allowing gas to spew into the basement and then explode.

The landlords who own both 119 and 121 Second Ave., have not returned calls from DNAinfo New York seeking comment. 

The restaurant owner, Hyeonil Kim, has told police that he was aware of additional black pipe lines in his eatery along the ceiling that may have been part of the gas diversion scheme.

The search for the gas pipe comes as the city officially identified the second man killed in the blast as Moises Ismael Locon Yac, a server the 121 Second Ave. sushi eatery, officials said Wednesday.