Sunday, March 29, 2015

Moments after the 2nd Avenue explosion



Photographer Nathan Blaney happened to be near Second Avenue and East Seventh Street at the time of the explosion Thursday afternoon.

He shared these photos with us… several photos show off-duty firefighter Mike Shepherd (in baseball cap) and Second Avenue resident Austin Branda climb the fire escape above Sushi Park to help rescue a stranded resident and search for others… Minutes later, No. 121 catches on fire...



































15 comments:

derek berg said...

Nathan Blaney & EV, thanks so much for these photographs. Quite a document!

Giovanni said...

These are great photos, the black & white really makes the tragedy more graphic. Notce that real documentary photographers never take selfies in front of disaster areas, because they know it's not about them, and you don't put a smiley face on top of someone else's tragedy.

Anonymous said...

excellent

Anonymous said...

So good to know there are heroes amongst us...

Susan T. said...

True photojournalism, NOT the "oh look at me and what I saw" variety we have been seeing way too much of lately.

Jill said...

If you look closely there is a cat looking out next to a fallen chair in the apartment on the left above the sushi restaurant. I've been wondering if any of the pets have been found.

Jill said...

It might be a dog.

Wink2x said...

Jill--you mean in photo #6?

Jill said...

It looks like in both 6&7. I hope I'm wrong.

Anonymous said...

If you click on the picture, it enlarges, and you can see it's not a cat.

Anonymous said...

Giovanni, "real" photographers are older too. Selfies, regardless of the background, are a thing young people take.

A lot has been written on the social significance of selfies. People would do well to read up on it, instead of just dismissing it.

Anonymous said...

I'm so thankful that more people weren't hurt. I'm so grateful that it was a workday and not something that happened in the middle of the night when more people would be in their homes. These pics are great and really show how tragic this really was.

Jill said...

By enlarging is how I saw it. Actually I think it's a dog. Or something fuzzy that is in the shape of an animal.

Anonymous said...

Moments before those photos were taken, this happened:

https://vine.co/v/O3IqbKivULe

Anonymous said...

I agree, the black and white carry a different tone. They are all chilling and real. It is unbelievable this happened. I am still in shock.