NEW YORK — Two Brooklyn homes collapsed and two others were damaged in a gas explosion Friday morning, but no one was injured, authorities said.
The explosion took place inside a vacant home at 65 Bay 35th Street, between Benson Avenue and 86th Street in Gravesend, around 7:10 a.m. on Friday, the FDNY and the city’s Department of Buildings said.
That home and an adjacent one at 69 Bay 35th Street sustained “major damage” and collapsed, the DOB said.
The explosion left a third adjacent home — at 71 Bay 35th Street — with broken windows, as well as interior and smoke damage, the department said. A nearby home at 61 Bay 35th Street sustained some minor damage.
No one appeared to have been injured in the explosion, FDNY Chief of Fire Operations John Hodgens said at a news briefing Friday morning.
“We are going to, just as a precaution, sift through the rubble of the buildings,” he said. “There’s no reported people missing, but just to be sure, as we pull out the debris, our units will be on the scene to look through the rubble.”
Hodgens initially said three homes would be "taken down due to structural damage." The DOB later confirmed that two homes collapsed, but said investigators were still working to determine whether the home at 71 Bay 35th Street would need to be demolished.
Residents from the two homes attached to the vacant one managed to evacuate safely, FDNY Deputy Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said at the briefing. The American Red Cross will provide them with emergency location assistance, the DOB said.
The first FDNY units that arrived at the scene Friday morning reported an odor of gas, the department said. More than 100 firefighters eventually responded to the street.
Gas and electricity service was turned off for the entire block as investigators assessed what role those utilities may have played in the explosion.
At the news briefing, Mayor Eric Adams implored New Yorkers to call 911 to report the smell of natural gas.
“We take the smell of gas seriously, and that is something that if there was a failure to report, we’re going to determine that,” he said. “But if there were calls made to 911, the proper agencies are dispatched to determine if the gas is a serious matter.”