Report: Tenants displaced by deadly 2015 2nd Avenue blast sue over unpaid stipends

Former tenants of 119 Second Ave., which was destroyed in the deadly March 2015 gas explosion, have filed a new lawsuit, alleging the current owner of the site has failed to pay them roughly $1.7 million in required housing stipends, the Post reports.

According to the suit, filed Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court, four rent-regulated tenants say the owner — through Avenue Second Owner LLC — has not paid any of the funds they are owed following the destruction of their homes on Second Avenue. 

The site, where three buildings collapsed after an illegally tapped gas line triggered a deadly explosion on March 26, 2015, has since been redeveloped into a 21-unit luxury condoplex at 45 E. Seventh St. 

State regulations require landlords to either rehouse displaced rent-regulated tenants or buy out their leases when a building is destroyed. The tenants say neither happened.

Per the lawsuit, the four tenants are now owed a total of $1,709,087, plus interest.

The owner has challenged the stipends through multiple appeals and legal actions over the years, all of which have been unsuccessful, according to the filing. 

March 26, 2015, will mark the 11th anniversary of the explosion.

Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón died on March 26, 2015. Figueroa, 23, who had recently graduated from SUNY Buffalo State, was at Sushi Park, 121 Second Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place, and the site of the fatal blast, dining with a co-worker. Locón, 27, worked at Sushi Park.

The explosion injured over 20 others and leveled three buildings — 119, 121 and 123 Second Ave. No. 45 sits on two of the three lots. A third lot remains vacant.

In November 2019, a jury found landlord Maria Hrynenko, who took over ownership of the buildings after her husband, Michael, died in 2004, contractor Dilber Kukic, and unlicensed plumber Jerry Ioannidis guilty of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and related offenses for their role in the explosion.

Prosecutors said that Hrynenko, driven by greed, and her cohorts rigged an illegal system to funnel gas from 119 Second Ave. to 121 Second Ave. to save money.

In January 2020, they were each sentenced to four to 12 years in prison. Hrynenko remained out on bail for two more years as she waited for an appeal of the case. 

During the sentencing, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus told the courtroom, "What the defendants did, in a matter of speaking, was roll the dice with the lives of many people. The results, as we know, are catastrophic."

However, Obus said he gave the defendants a break on their prison time because they were older and "did not intend to blow up the building." 

"It's not enough. It's a joke," Nixon Figueroa, father of Nicholas, told reporters afterward. "What kind of justice did you give us? You didn't give us no justice. It's a slap in my son's face."

According to public records, Hrynenko, 66, was released from prison in October 2023 after serving 20 months. She was eligible for parole in November 2025. Her conditional release date was November 2029, and the maximum date is November 2033. It's not known at this moment why she was released early. Records show that she is under post-release supervision through this April.

Kukic, 50, was released on parole early last year; Ioannidis, 69, in January. 

Michael A. Hrynenko, Jr., Maria's son and a key figure in the gas explosion investigation, died on Aug. 25, 2017. He was 31, according to an obituary posted on the Pizzi Funeral Home website. The cause of death was never disclosed.