crazy where i m standing right now. i have been talking about the sno smoke. you could feel the blast all the way across the city. we did just get information that there has been one death. one death from this blast. one block away from me now. it was a mail of unknown age in the harlem building collapse. there were 16 people injured ranging from minor to serious. none critical. one person has been killed in this blast. we will tell you more right after the break.
injuries. 12 of them minor, taken to more hospitals. i don t know from my vantage point if there are any confirmations of anything. all down on top of the people. very clear. so you saw them removing the people. i saw the police and the fire department helping a lot to remove the people to the hospital. very hard. how long did it take for people to get here? two, flee minutes. . reporter: he is a business owner, like i said, less than a block away. i have a very good vantage point. you can probably hear the jackhammering. i m going to toss it back to you if you have any questions. don, thank you so much. just a few moments ago, behind me, i don t know if you can make it out know. the smoke is so thick.
the smoke momentarily just cleared. one of the striking features had been the amount of smoke that had been passing by. the other notable feature, i don t know if you can see it back near those buildings, train tracks. one of the main arteries. all of the trains going to connecticut and many heading elsewhere. right now, that s shut down. thousands and thousands of commuters could be affected by this blast. i want to bring in my colleague, don lemon, who doesn t live too, too far from here. what are you seeing? actually, i m half a block away from it. an amazing vantage point that i have here. i have been talking to workers who live in the area and see when it happened. they are in the building i m standing in and the one right
this size with windows shaking? no, not like that. i m way over the on the west side. i certainly heard it. it was very loud. i could feel it. it only felt like the subway was going under my building. how long did it take you to find out what was happening and how long did it take you to find some of this smoke that was pouring out everywhere where i m standing right now. five minutes. five minutes for it to spread. how far away are you from the blast? i am over on eighth avenue. i m quite a way away. i just went straight outside to see what was going on. i could see it coming on. the sirens are going crazy. the helicopter started coming. it was just crazy over there. it is crazy.
through debris. also, something that is very important, con ed and edison is here with the electric gas company. they are franticly using a gas ham more and pick to get to something. just above them, i can see members of the new york city police department and members of the mass transit, on new york city mass transit, on the railroad track for metro north, a major commuter artery. they have shut that down completely, as i m looking at this building, it s like looking at my next-door neighbor here. i m standing and i see smoke