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Second Body Found in Rubble of Borough Park Building Explosion, FDNY Says

By  Aidan Gardiner and Ben Fractenberg | October 5, 2015 9:34am | Updated on October 5, 2015 4:00pm

 Crews at the scene of a deadly building explosion in Borough Park.
Crews at the scene of a deadly building explosion in Borough Park.
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Mayoral Photography Office/Demetrius Freeman

BROOKLYN — A second body was pulled Monday from the rubble of the Borough Park building that collapsed from a gas explosion that left one woman dead and another missing, officials said.

Fire officials would not immediately identify the body found.

Francisca Figueroa, 47, a mother of three, lived on the second floor of 4206 13th Ave., near 42nd Street, and has not been seen since the blast on 1 p.m. Saturday, officials and family members said.

Third-floor tenant Ligia Puello, 64, was found in a stairwell and pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Thirteen other people were injured, officials said. Three of them were treated at Methodist Hospital, including one person who suffered critical injuries, said Mayor Bill de Blasio during a press conference Saturday at the scene.

 Two people were killed after a building exploded at 4206 13th Ave. in Borough Park on Saturday. 
Borough Park Building Explosion
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"This is a very tough situation, but the response from the FDNY and the other first responders has been extraordinary," the mayor said.

It was not immediately clear what triggered the explosion, by officials believe that Figueroa's stove could be the cause.

"We are told that the tenant there purchased a high-end stove. It was their own stove. They were moving out of the apartment and were going to take that stove with them," said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro.

"[That] leads us, preliminarily, to look in that direction as the cause of the explosion."

Outside the staging area on Monday, family members gathered hoping to find out what happened to the active mom.

"She was a beautiful person, a very caring person," said Sara Diaz, 56, who is the godmother to Figueroa's daughter, Lecha Aceveda.

Diaz said that Figueroa, who also went by the first name "Franchezka," had been struggling financially had been taken to housing court by her landlord. 

The mother was moving out of the building and was going to remove a stove she had purchased, the godmother added. 

Figueroa had been working hard to support her beauty salon on Fifth Avenue and 12th Street in Park Slope, according to Diaz's husband, Frank Diaz. 

"She was always up and about working long hours seven days a week," he said. 

Investigators had found a stove and removed it from the building to be analyzed, sources said. 

Occupants of five buildings on the block were forced to evacuate in the aftermath, displacing 49 people, officials said.