Massive explosion at NYC home sends police officers flying
A massive, fiery explosion at a Queens home sent several New York City police officers flying through the air as they responded to a call of a man inside armed with a knife and smelling gas.
NEW YORK– A massive, fiery explosion at a Queens home sent several New York City police officers flying through the air early Thursday morning as they responded to a call of a man inside armed with a knife and smelling gas.
Eight officers were treated for minor injuries — including burns and at least one laceration to the head — after the explosion, and everyone who was inside the building was accounted for, although several were taken to hospitals, police said.
Police body camera video of the explosion shows officers about to enter a small Queens home before 3 a.m., and just as one begins to open the door, a huge explosion erupts, blowing out windows and knocking the officers across a yard and into a gate. Police officers can then be seen rushing to recover through the debris as smoke billows from the house, checking each other to see if anyone had been injured.
“Are you guys okay?” one of the officers can be heard saying.
The video then cuts to about a minute later and shows a police officer helping two young children out of the house as a handful of other people stagger out of the house.
“I want to be clear: We were very lucky today, all right,” Deputy Chief Christopher McIntosh of the New York Police Department said at a press briefing hours later. “It could have gone really differently.”
“Luckily today luck was on their side,” he said of the police officers.
McIntosh said the man who triggered the initial call arrived at the home intoxicated and carrying a knife and two trash bags filled with cans containing an “unknown substance.” He pushed an air conditioning unit to enter a basement apartment where his wife, daughter and two grandchildren live.
They eventually managed to escape the building and police arrived shortly after. The man is missing, McIntosh said.
The house collapsed after the explosion, authorities said. Neighboring homes were also damaged.
