"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."
"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. "When you come out through this building, you smell a little bit," Melendez said. Fourth-floor tenant Dee English said the smell was "strong enough that it was obvious something was wrong.""
A boiler explosion early Wednesday caused a partial collapse along a 20-story section of a Bronx public housing building at 205 Alexander Ave., toppling bricks and leaving a large tear in the facade. No injuries were reported, but adjacent tenants will be displaced for at least two days. Several residents and a construction worker reported smelling gas in the building in the hours and months before the blast. Officials have not yet determined the exact cause of the explosion. Con Edison shut off gas service to the roughly 3,500-unit development and has been working on nearby gas infrastructure.
Read at Gothamist
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