Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Still searching for answers

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Still searching for answers: Pair Saved After Westchester Square Explosion (Photos by David Greene) By David Greene BRONX, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 2- A half dozen civilia...

Still searching for answers

Pair Saved After Westchester Square Explosion

(Photos by David Greene)

By David Greene

BRONX, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 2- A half dozen civilians helped remove debris and assisted firefighters in locating two men who were buried in rubble after an explosion brought a small building down on top of them.

Rescue crews were called to B & L Auto Repair at 2601 Westchester Avenue at just before 8 a.m., on November 27, after the adjacent one-story structure used as an office, exploded and collapsed trapping the pair in debris.

Bill Sanfardino, who works at nearby electrical shop, recalled, "They’re good people... fortunately they got out alive, I mean it was a crazy scene. The building just exploded, I don't know how or why."

"We were sitting in the shop," Sanfardino continued, "and we heard a boom." Sanfardino stated they located the victims within the five minutes it took for rescue crews to arrive.

Doroteo Sanchez, a day-laborer was standing across the street at the time of the explosion, recalled, "I heard a loud boom. I thought it was a truck that hit one of the columns for the train station. I turned around and the building was down and smoke was rising up into the air."

Sanchez, 51, continued, "We all ran over there to see what was going on and somebody said that someone was in there, so we started looking around and moving beams and wood and brick out of the way.

"It looked like a war zone," Sanchez concluded, "I thought a bomb hit it or something."

The unidentified 63-year-old father and his 36-year-old son were rushed to Jacobi Hospital and were both expected to recover.

B & L Auto has been in business for the last 30-years.

One source close to the investigation stated that the victims were using an air compressor as they welded a gas line when the explosion took place.

Chief William Seelig of the FDNY's Special Operations Division, stated, "It was some pretty manually intensive work we needed to do to get the victims out."

Seelig added that the exact cause of the explosion remains under investigation.   

Tags: Building Collapse, Westchester Avenue

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Speed Killed?

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Speed Killed?: Metro-North Derailment Caused by Unsafe Speed? Investigators Search for Clues (Photos by David Greene) By David Greene BRO...

Speed Killed?

Metro-North Derailment Caused by Unsafe Speed?

Investigators Search for Clues

(Photos by David Greene)

By David Greene

BRONX, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 2- Four people were killed and dozens injured when a Metro-North commuter train that departed Poughkeepsie, NY. and headed  for Grand Central Station--derailed just a few hundred yards from the Spuyten Duyvil Station.

Teams of rescue crews were dispatched after the 7:20 a.m. crash that ejected three of the four victims from the train. Authorities estimate the train was packed with over 125 holiday travelers returning from Thanksgiving celebrations, when it crashed on Sunday, December 1.

One resident of the area, who awoke as the train made it's turn as it approached the station, recalled, "I thought I heard it speeding around the turn just before it crashed."

Multiple sources say the train's engineer William Rockefeller, Jr., 46, a 14-year veteran with Metro- North, told investigators that the air-brakes on the train had failed.

Police used cadaver dogs to search for additional victims in the heavy brush as scuba divers searched the water where the Harlem River meets the Hudson.

Many of the reported 63 injured were transported to St. Barnabas, Jacobi and Montefiore Hospital's in the Bronx as well as New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan.

Police have identified the dead as James Ferrari, 59, of Montrose, NY; Ahn Kisook, 35, of Woodside, Queens; James Lovell, 58, of Cold Spring, NY., and Donna Smith, 54, of Newburgh, NY.

Governor Andrew Cuomo visited the crash site and Mayor Michael Bloomberg and police commissioner Ray Kelly visited with many of the injured, including several off-duty police officers at both Montefiore and St. Barnabas Hospitals.

Bloomberg stated that the crash could have been much worse, telling reporters, "It could have happened later in the day, and on a business day when a train like that is full."

A team of investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) arrived on scene and immediately recovered the train’s "black box," that will provide crucial information as to what happened in the moments leading up to the crash.

Earl Weener of the NTSB stated, "Our mission is not to just understand what happened but why it happened, with the intent of preventing it from happening again."

The on-site investigation was expected to take a week, forcing the thousands of daily commuters along the Hudson Line to seek alternative routes. A detailed report on the exact cause of the crash was expected to take as long as a year.

The speed limit is normally 70 miles-per-hour along a straight-away before a 30 mile-per-hour limit as it approaches a sharp turn leading into the Spuyten Duyvil Station.

A train hauling garbage derailed back in July, a short distance from the most recent crash. That crash tore up the tracks and littered the line with tons of debris.

The crash was Metro-North's first fatal crash in its 30-year history.   

Tags: Train Derailment, Metro-North, Commuter Train

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Feeding the needy this Holiday

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Feeding the needy this Holiday: Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. joined FreshDirect CEO & Founder Jason Ackerman to deliver more than 200 turkeys to the residen...

Feeding the needy this Holiday

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. joined FreshDirect CEO & Founder Jason Ackerman to deliver more than 200 turkeys to the residents of the Betances Houses on St. Ann's Avenue. The turkeys were delivered to the event in one of FreshDirect's all-electric delivery vehicles, part of the company's commitment to an environmentally-friendly fleet.

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fordham Wins Battle of the Bronx

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fordham Wins Battle of the Bronx: (Photos by Gary Quintal) By Howard Goldin BRONX, NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 27- On Tuesday night, for the 106th time, the men’s basketball teams ...