The search for survivors continued into the night following a deadly gas explosion Wednesday that collapsed two buildings where residents complained of smelling gas for weeks, killing six people.
Dozens of people were injured and at least a dozen more are still missing as authorities searched the wreckage with cadaver dogs, sources said.
One of the deceased was identified as Griselde Camacho, 48, a public safety officer at Hunter College.
A second victim was later identified as 67-year-old dental assistant Carmen Tanco, who was an active church member and traveled to third world countries to provide dental services.
Sources said that a third victim was also identified as Rosaura Hernandez, 21.
The fourth person was found in the rubble at around 12:30 a.m. Thursday, FDNY sources confirmed.
Two more bodies were pulled from the rubble early Thursday morning, bringing the total to six – four women and two men.
“This is a tragedy of the worst kind,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a press conference Wednesday. “There was a major explosion that destroyed two buildings, the explosion was based on a gas leak.”
Con Edison was called at 9:13 a.m. about a possible gas leak at the building and dispatched a team to check it out.
Before the team could get there, the gas ignited a thunderous explosion that caused the building to collapse and sent massive amounts of debris tumbling into the street, burying cars and bystanders.
The explosion brought down two five-story buildings on Park Avenue near the corner of East 116th Street around 9:30 a.m., reducing them to rubble.
“It certainly has all the marks of such an incident [a gas line explosion]. We are waiting to inspect the lines to determine the cause,” said Alfonso Quiroz, a spokesman for Con Edison.
The mayor said there was no warning in advance of the blast and that several people are still unaccounted for.
“The only indication of danger came about 15 minutes earlier when a gas leak was reported to Con Edison,” de Blasio said. “There will be a search through the rubble of the building after the fire has been put out,” de Blasio said.
Con Edison is in the process of shutting off the gas mains leading to the building.
But despite the mayor’s claim about there being no prior warning, people who live nearby said the area around the destroyed buildings reeked of gas for years.
View video“It smelled like gas, it always smells of gas around here,” said Julie Mark, a local resident.
“There were people everywhere crying.”
Keema Thomas, 23, lives next to one of the collapsed buildings and said she too regularly smells gas.
“For the past two years we’ve been smelling gas in the building,” Thomas said. “And police from the 25th Precinct would come and evacuate it sometimes.”
“But then they’d let us back in 10, 15 minutes later,” she added. “And they’d say it’s fine. But we’ve definitely been smelling gas for a while now.”
View videoThe National Transportation Safety Board said it will conduct a lengthy investigation that will probe the call logs of Con Edison to find out when people started complaining about the smell of gas.
“We will be looking at all reports,” said Robert Sumwalt, a NTSB board member. “We will be looking at Con Eds call logs to see when the first calls started coming in. That will definitely be part of our investigation,”
Around 50 units, including 250 firefighters, battled flames and searched wreckage for victims.
Hundreds of people who live in building surrounding the area where the collapse occurred were evacuated and it was unclear when they would be allowed to return to their homes. All of the buildings evacuated were deemed to be structurally sound.
“It’s a shame that the cries of these people were ignored,” said Marsha Daniels, 61. “People turned their heads and it cost people their lives.”
Daniels said the gas problem should have been evident because people in the area complained about it regularly.
“Look how many people are out here that are affected by this. Something needs to be done,” she said. “This here is a terrible tragedy. It didn’t have to happen.”
Witnesses said the blast shook them to the core as they were going about their business Wednesday morning.
“I was on my way to the deli when I heard a big noise,” said Maria Velez, 55. “I thought it was the train above me, but then I looked and saw pieces of a building falling on top of cars.”
“People were inside the cars and chunks of building landed on them,” she added. “Then the whole building came down, 1, 2, 3, like that, and all I could see was black smoke all over the place.”
The collapsed buildings, 1644 and 1646 Park Ave., each had a storefront on the first floor and apartments above. One housed a Spanish Christian Church and the other had a piano shop called Absolute Piano.
Department of Building records show that 120 feet of new gas piping was to be installed at 1644 Park last June to supply a stove in a fifth-floor apartment.
Both buildings have received numerous violations and complaints over the years, according to the DOB’s website. In 2008, the agency issued a violation at 1646 Park because the building’s rear wall had several cracks which could have endangered the structure’s stability.
William Greaves, 24, was asleep in his apartment at 110th Street and Park after working a night shift as a freight operator when the blast woke him up.
“I heard a BOOM! It sounded like a freaking missile,” he said. “It was so loud, I thought the explosion happened in my building — and I’m six blocks away.”
Another witness, Carlos Perez, said he was just opening up his flower shop when the explosion rattled him.
“I heard a huge explosion and all the windows shattered. I thought a train had fallen off the track and onto the street — that’s how loud it was,” said Perez, 55.
“When I looked, I saw everybody was running and there was smoke everywhere,” he continued.
“Then the building collapsed. Cars that were parked and even cars that were driving were shattered. The building — there was nothing there. Where there was supposed to be a building, there was nothing.”
Dennis Osorio, 40, lives on 116th between Park and Lexington avenues and was on his computer when he heard the devastating explosion and ran outside.
“It seriously felt like a crane just toppled over outside my door,” he said. “I was really scared. I stuck my head out and my super told me a bomb went off.”
“Outside was chaos,” he continued. “There were pillars of smoke. It was so hard to see. There were tons of people and it looked like they were trying to dig people out from the rubble and dust. I saw a woman strapped to a board taken away in an ambulance. She was sobbing. Storefront windows were blown out. This is shocking. It’s shocking.”
In addition to the six who were killed, dozens of others were taken to area hospitals with varying degrees of injury.
Officials at Mount Sinai Hospital confirmed that they were treating at least 21 people, including two children, while Harlem Hospital confirmed treating at least 14 people, one of whom was a child with serious injuries.
Other patients were being treated at Saint Luke’s and Metropolitan hospitals, FDNY officials said.
Friends and relatives of possible victims were frantically searching for their missing loved ones at area hospitals, but with little success.
Montserrat Acevedo, 24, arrived at Harlem Hospital looking for his brother-in-law, who also lived in one of the buildings.
“He was in the building at the time,” Acevedo said, referring to Jordy Salas. “He’s not answering his phone.”
“So far we haven’t found him,” she continued. “It’s very stressful because we don’t know anything since 9 a.m.”