The East Harlem explosion could have been prevented if more people had only called sooner about smelling a gas leak, officials said Thursday as jittery residents throughout the city flooded Con Ed, 911 and 311 to report suspected leaks at nearly twice the normal rate.
Multiple residents and neighbors of the two collapsed apartment buildings at Park Avenue and East 116th Street have said that they had smelled gas previously but did nothing about it.
The last time anyone called to report a gas leak on the affected block was May 17, 2013, said John McAvoy, CEO of Con Edison.
The FDNY had no reports of gas leaks at either building in the 30 days prior to Wednesday’s explosion, said Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano.
A resident of a neighboring building finally did call Con Ed to report a gas odor on Wednesday morning — but the call came in just 15 minutes before the blast, when it was too late to prevent the tragedy, officials said.
Meanwhile, gas reports were rampant in the hours after the blast.
Throughout March, the FDNY was getting an average of 49 gas-leak calls per day, but on Wednesday the Fire Department received 90 calls, officials said.
A Con Ed spokesman said more than 150 gas-leak calls a day are coming in, based on volume since the collapses. On the day before the explosion, there were only 85 calls.