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Fire Dept. Battalion Chief Killed in Bronx Explosion After Reports of Gas Leak Fire Dept. Battalion Chief Killed in Bronx Explosion After Reports of Gas Leak
(about 7 hours later)
A Fire Department battalion chief was killed and at least a dozen other people were injured in an explosion on Tuesday morning that destroyed a two-story house in the Bronx that was being investigated as a place where marijuana was being grown, New York City officials said. The early morning call seemed relatively routine: a report of a gas smell at a small, two-story house on West 234th Street in the Bronx.
The chief, Michael J. Fahy, a 17-year veteran of the department, was one of several emergency workers who responded to a 6:20 a.m. call about a gas leak at the building in the Kingsbridge neighborhood, the officials said. But the nearly 20 firefighters who arrived at the house about a half-hour before sunrise on Tuesday noticed something else — materials that indicated that at least part of the home was being used as a drug laboratory, officials said. The firefighters called the police and left the building.
When firefighters arrived at the building, on West 234th Street, they saw what they thought could be materials used in drug production inside the house and called the police, the officials said. The firefighters also smelled gas. The explosion occurred at about 7:30 a.m. On the street, Battalion Chief Michael J. Fahy was directing his firefighters. Then, the building exploded.
Speaking at a news conference at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Allen Pavilion in Manhattan on Tuesday morning, Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said Chief Fahy was directing operations on the street when he was struck by debris from the blast. The other people injured were also outside the house, he said. Chief Fahy, a 17-year veteran of the department and father of three young children, was hit by debris and killed. He had followed his own father, Thomas, into the department. Chief Fahy, 44, lived in Yonkers with his wife and children. He had a law degree and had climbed steadily up the Fire Department’s ranks.
Mr. Nigro said Chief Fahy, 44, a father of three young children, was “a rising star” of the department. Chief Fahy had been struck on his head by a piece of the roof, officials said. He died at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Allen Pavilion in the Inwood section of Manhattan, after being rushed there by police officers, who tried desperately to save his life, the police and fire officials said.
Chief Fahy had followed his own father, also a battalion chief, into the department, Mr. Nigro added. The police said they had a man in custody whom they were questioning in relation to the case.
The last death in the line of duty for the Fire Department was in 2014, according to the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York. It was the first line-of-duty death for the Fire Department since Lt. Gordon Matthew Ambelas died in 2014, according to the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York.
Firefighters, police officers and workers from the utility Consolidated Edison were among those hurt, Mr. Nigro said, adding that none of the injuries were life-threatening. At a news conference at the hospital on Tuesday morning, the fire commissioner, Daniel A. Nigro, described Chief Fahy as “a rising star” of the department. “He was a star, a brave man,” Mr. Nigro said, emotion weighing in his voice. “We feel it deeply, we feel it deeply today.”
The police received a tip in the last few weeks about a house on West 234th Street being used to grow marijuana, Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill said at the news conference. Officers were in the initial stages of an investigation there, he said. Mr. Fahy had briefly worked as lawyer for the firm Proskauer Rose before joining the Fire Department in 1999, according to his LinkedIn profile. He rose from firefighter to lieutenant to captain and, finally, to battalion chief in 2012. He had also earned a master’s degree in homeland security from the Naval Postgraduate School.
Images on Tuesday showed the two-story dwelling reduced largely to rubble, a pile of splintered wood and bricks spilled onto the cars parked in front of it. The explosion was felt and heard blocks away. About 20 other people were injured in the explosion, including nine firefighters, six police officers and three workers from Consolidated Edison, Mr. Nigro said. None of the injuries were life-threatening.
Jennifer Mullane, who lives a couple of blocks from the site, said she was in her kitchen washing dishes when a loud boom shook her building. The police had been looking at West 234th Street after receiving a tip that a house there was being used to grow marijuana, Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill said at the news conference. Officers were in the initial stages of an investigation there, he said.
“It felt like it was literally across the street,” Ms. Mullane said. “There was smoke and ashes floating down, like burnt paper.” The explosion sent wood, bricks and a large part of the building’s roof tumbling down, much of it into the street and onto the cars parked there. Neighbors and residents from the surrounding blocks reported their buildings shaking them awake.
David Khabinsky, 25, a photographer who also lives nearby, said he was getting ready for work at the time. Images on Tuesday showed the two-story dwelling reduced largely to rubble. A video shot by a neighbor showed firefighters dousing the smoking building in water as sirens blared nearby.
“I thought it was very loud,” he said. “Then five minutes later you hear police sirens, and then helicopter after helicopter after helicopter.” The explosion was felt and heard blocks away, jolting the quiet residential neighborhood and touching on the jittery nerves of a city still on edge from the bombings in Manhattan and New Jersey about a week and a half ago.
“It’s hard not to make these assumptions these days,” said Campbell Abbott, 24, who lives a block away and shot the video after the explosion. “I thought it was some rogue terrorist.”
Nonetheless, Mr. Abbott left his seventh-floor apartment to head to the scene of the blast to shoot the video, which he broadcast live on Facebook.
Matthew Chrisphonte, 21, said he was asleep in his family’s home, across the street and a few doors down on Tibbett Avenue, when he felt the blast. “My entire house shook and immediately following the explosion I heard screaming, yelling,” he said.
Mr. Chrisphonte said a building close to the explosion site housed a day care center, which was evacuated.
The person listed in public records as the owner of the property could not be reached for comment. The police said the house was occupied by renters, but they had yet to identify them.
Many neighbors said the house was frequently occupied by college-age tenants, but none seemed to know its latest tenants.
Marina Uza lived in the neighborhood for 11 years but said she moved away last year because of issues with the home where the explosion took place: parties and people screaming on the street.
“There were too many people going in and out,” she said. “There was too much going on. I have a child, so I left.”
Around Chief Fahy’s firehouse in the Bronx, the street was closed to traffic and pedestrians. Another group of firefighters dropped off food.
“It’s a terrible loss for the Fahy family; it’s a loss for the Fire Department family,” Mr. Nigro said. “He was doing what fire officers do.”