this scene. firefighters working every possible angle here. we have been told that the fire was mostly out. i have covered a lot of buildings that have gone down in this country and others and i will tell you, the remarkable feature of this, right now, is the smoke. smoke is simply everywhere around here and it is very, very thick. we did just get some information from one of our producers who says that investigators have been told by neighbors, investigators have been told by neighbors that they did gas prior to the explosion. that would jive with what we have been hearing now with the con edison crews on the scene and the news it was possibly some kind of gas leak before.
you can see the crews working in smoke and soot and ash covering the windshields of cars. con edison crews, the power company here now. just a short time ago, you all reported, there is the cents from con edison that perhaps this blast was caused by a gas leak. these two buildings that were affected, one, as i said, not there anymore. we do not know the condition of the second building. they simply do not know at this point. it is well manned here. 39 up its from the new york fire department. 168 members working the scene of what was a piano store, what was a spanish christian church with apartments on top of them. now, one of those buildings simply gone. i should tell you, i used to
they just put out a statement saying that report of a gas odor at 1652 park avenue came at 9:13 from a resident. two con edison crews were dispatched at 9:15 and arrived just after the explosion. so let s say that again. at 9:13, con edison had reports of a gas odor. just a few doors down from where these buildings were at 1644. that building is now gone. the report of the odor was at 1652. that gives you a sense of what seems to be the cause of these two blasts that now killed at least one person. the scene in the area, very, very smokey. large numbers of rescue personnel and firefighters on the scene, 168 firefighters right now. they are fighting up on the ladders from the sky, trying to get a good vantage point to put the blames out.
anymore. there has been one fatality in this blast we know of, one confirmed death. 16 injuries. not sure if one of those injured had died. one death. more than a dozen injured right now. we are told that neighbors living close to this scene. one was a piano store. one was a spanish, christian church. there are apartments on top of the storefronts. neighbors around the buildings had smelled gas prior to the explosion. there are con edison crews on the scene here investigating. we had been told earlier cnn had chris cuomo reporting that con edison was sighing they thought it did look like some kind of gas explosion. no connection to terrorism of any kind. a hunl, huge lge, huge law enfo.
gas odor just before the explosion occurred. the call came in at 9:13 a.m. from a resident who reported smelling gas inside the apartment complex. however, the resident also indicated that the odor may have been coming from outside the building. we sent out two con edison crews, they were dispatched maybe 9:15 a.m. and arrived just after the explosion occurred. now in that particular area, the street is served by an eight-inch low-pressure main, physically right now, crews are checking surrounding gas lines and are working to see if there are any leaks, isolate any leaks, and to make the area safe. and, of course, we continue to work closely with the fire department and we were originally dispatched or called by the fire department. now you got a call from the person who was at 1652. the heart of this explosion and