5 indicted in 2015 New York City gas explosion that killed 2

A building owner and four others were arrested Thursday on manslaughter, negligent homicide and other charges in connection with a gas explosion past year that killed two people and leveled three Manhattan buildings.

In court, Hickey said Maria Hrynenko “was undeterred by regulations that are in place for the delivery of gas” and she “jerry rigged” the system, and then after she was caught “she instructed her workers to come up with yet another illegal gas delivery system”.

One prosecutor Friday called the fiery blast “foreseeable, preventable and completely avoidable”. The plumber allegedly paid a former partner, Andrew Trombettas, 57, for the use of his master plumbing license to submit the required paperwork for the job with the city buildings department and gas utility, Con Edison.

The two were caught on building surveillance video the day of the deadly blast and fire responding to a fumes complaint from the ground-floor sushi restaurant, then quickly running to fiddle with their hidden basement gas setup – literally sprinting through the restaurant without warning a single patron, officials allege. All five were taken into custody Thursday morning.

“Our message to the contractors, property owners and managers is simply this: They have to resist temptation to take these shortcuts”, said Vance. It also raised concerns about the state of New York City’s aging infrastructure and highlighted the danger in people illegally tapping into gas lines as developers and landlords rush to get a piece of the ever-more-expensive real estate market.

A pile of debris remains at the site of a building explosion in the East Village neighbourhood of NY.

Singled out for particular blame were contractor Dilber Kukic, 40, and the landlord’s son, Michael Hyrnenko Jr, 30.

Two people were killed – Moises Ismael Locon Yac and Nicholas Figueroa – and 22 others were injured.

Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said at the news conference that the fire sparked by the explosion was so intense he feared some of his firefighters could have been killed as they rushed into the buildings in search of survivors and to quell the blaze. “But tragically they never re-closed the valves that they had opened in order for the gas to go up to the apartments during the pressure test by ConEd”, Vance said. The explosion occurred moments later. They instead ran towards the East 7th Street entrance to the building basement, where the illegal gas delivery system was set up. New York City lost two of our own in this tragic explosion – and New York City’s Bravest put their lives on the line to battle this seven-alarm fire ‘ said de Blasio in a statement.

Adding: ‘We are heartened that today these defendants will be brought to justice and forced to answer for their criminal actions‘.