piano store, some other businesses. and something residential above that. the other building is a hispanic evangelical church. it s tiny. it had some construction, they believe, something going on over the summer. during the summer, they had seen utility trucks, and believe there might have been work on those lines. reporter: in fact, we are getting some permits, cnn has in hand, showing some gas work in the building that has been simply destroyed right now. two buildings now decimated. one we know for sure simply gone. two deaths at this point to report so far. much, much more reporting to be done from the scene here, just a block away from this explosion in east harlem, new york. legal view with ashleigh banfield will pick up on this right after the break. [ male announcer ] she won t remember this, being carried in your arms. but after a day spent in the caribbean exploring mayan ruins and playing pirates with you in secret coves,
it does seem as though there was some urgency to the situation. one fatality reported so far. police on the scene say the numbers are expected to change. we ll hold off on that. we are into the search for the missing jetliner. they have drastically expanded the search area they are looking at. they are more than doubling it. it is adding to the grief of the families of the 239 people on that flight. it is adding to the frustration of search crews. there is no clarification on the last known movements of the plane or where it is. that makes it extra challenging. if you think about the family and friends of these more than
drive by here. that is the type of truck with the type of personnel that would be looking at bodies. that could just be precautionary. you would imagine that those personnel would be dispatched to any situation like this. again, the situation as far as we know it right now, this large explosion taking place around 9:30, not long after con edison had received reports of a gas odor. we are going to take a break and tell you more from the scene when we come back. i m beth. and i m michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it s a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn t get into business to spend time managing receipts,
still pouring out of this building. i see a tower, ladder, number 13 and a number of other fire crews on this scene going through. that is the very latest from here. try to get more information and more eyewitnesses from people at work or in their apartments when it happened. reporter: i m about a block away. i am joined by poppy harlow and andrew pedilla. reporter: i got here and met andrew, an independent journalist that lives in the neighborhood. not far. obviously, for the first time, the smoke is clearing a bit from what we saw when we arrived here. a lot clearer. when we could hardly see a few feet into this block. the first thing that andrew told
standing amid the debris. what is it like? reporter: just heartbreaking. you can see these two buildings have just collapsed into a pile of rubble. you would think this was a construction zone. there are individual bricks lying there, and there is a swarm of firefighters. i would say over a dozen firefighters that keep moving in on top of the pile, pulling out bricks, one by one. almost as if they were deconstructing like a pixie stick set. there is a plume of smoke from the center, very, very hot, appears to be on fire. you can see something golden in the center. and two hoses up on ladders shooting right into the middle. now, i spoke also with a woman who was leaving the scene about a half block away, absolutely hysterical. she lives on the second floor of the building that is completely collapsed. and she said that her building is residents over a church. this morning at about 9:00, just after 9:00, she leaves to go to school. says goodbye to her husband. and as she is walking thr