Cause of deadly Bronx explosion, fire remains under investigation
Investigators are still working to determine the cause of Wednesday's deadly fire in the Bronx.
One person was killed and 14 others were injured, including several firefighters, following an explosion and fire on East 209th Street near Decatur Place in the Norwood section. It took hours to bring the fire under control.
Investigation delayed due to instability
The person who died in the fire was located via a drone inside the building, but they have not yet been identified because responders are unable to retrieve the body due to the instability of the building, police sources said.
Investigators were at the scene Thursday, but FDNY sources said fire marshals and NYPD arson investigators are delayed because of those concerns about a partial interior collapse.
Residents left traumatized
Nearly two dozen families are without a home after the violent fire blew apartment doors off the hinges and shattered glass windows. Residents of the building are traumatized.
Resident Iris Nazario said she tried to help a neighbor who was badly burned by the blast, and then ran throughout the building to warn everyone to get out, including her children.
"I was trying to help her, but I couldn't," Nazario said. "I saw a blast ... I thought the whole building was blowing up."
Jose Concepcion said a family friend was in the hospital after she was pulled out by firefighters from her top floor apartment's shower and onto the fire escape.
"We told her to turn on the water and stay wet because the smoke was so strong," Concepcion said. "They had to carry her down that fire escape."
"I smelled gas when I went down the steps," resident Melvis Cliatt said. "All I hear, just boom, and then I see glass just shattering out the window."
The explosion was caught on surveillance video, which shows glass bursting out the windows. Two men walking across the street on Parkside Place can be seen ducking for cover, one behind a parked car.
"I'm just glad God blessed me and I got through," Rashid Johnson said. "If that car wasn't there, I could have been hit by the air conditioner."
"Whatever the explosion was, it was so powerful that I felt it four buildings down. It shook my building," one Norwood resident said.
"It just started from one floor, to the next, to the next, to the next, and you seen a young lady run out that was on fire. Like, she ran out like she had got burned," another area resident said.
Some pets rescued
Five of Ellesse and Christopher Falcon's dogs were rescued by firefighters.
"Regardless if I lost everything, they're my everything. They are what was worth everything to me," she said.
They said they begged the Red Cross, which alerted firefighters, who first brought out their 10-month-old puppy that had been saved from a hoarding house.
"The fire department went in and carried her out, and brought her to me," Christopher Falcon said.
"They were really afraid. They were soaking wet. They had debris all over them. They were crying," Ellesse Falcon said. "I really thank American Red Cross. They would not be alive without them."
Fire officials say it's not secure for any residents to enter the building to retrieve personal items.
Cause still under investigation
FDNY sources say investigators are looking at the cause as a possible combination of lithium-ion battery and gas due to the severity of the explosion.
A Norwood resident told CBS News New York she smelled gas outside the building the night before.
Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Bullock explained why investigators may be looking at the involvement of a lithium-ion battery.
"When there's a problem with the battery, when you're charging it, that's when usually the problem is. It really builds up a tremendous amount of heat and smoke, and it explodes. And when it explodes, it sends the smoke and the particles, burning embers, all over. So it gets a big head start before the fire department even knows about it," Bullock said.
The FDNY hasn't confirmed the official cause of the fire as yet.
There are 27 units in the building, and the Red Cross says it has helped 45 people with temporary lodging, including seven children.
The Department of Buildings has issued a full vacate order and ordered the landlord to put up a fence around the property. There's a partial vacate order next door.
