Gas Smell Preceded Bronx NYCHA Collapse, Tenants Say

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Originally published on msn.com

Residents of a Bronx public housing complex say they smelled gas around the site of a partial building collapse in the hours and days leading up to the disaster that city officials are blaming on a boiler explosion.

The explosion around 8 a.m. Wednesday toppled bricks and left a 20-story tear along the side of the building at 205 Alexander Ave., where a chimney once stood. No one was injured, but tenants in apartments next to the collapsed section of the building will be displaced for at least the next two days.

Officials said they don’t yet know the exact cause of the explosion, but three tenants and the local city councilmember said some residents began noticing the smell of gas in recent months.

Construction worker Luis Nevarez, a resident of a neighboring building, said he smelled gas around midnight Wednesday, about eight hours before the explosion.

“There definitely were warning signs,” he said.

Wilfredo Melendez, an eighth-floor tenant in the building that partially collapsed, said he smelled gas for several months whenever he entered his building through a door near the boiler room.

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