Remembering Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón

Today marks the eighth anniversary of the deadly Second Avenue gas explosion, which killed two men, injured two dozen people, and leveled three buildings (119, 121 and 123 Second Ave.).

There is a memorial plaque on site for the two men who died that day — Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón.

Officials dedicated this plaque in May 2021. The Village Preservation advocated for its placement here on the new residential building at 45 E. Seventh St. 

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• RIP Nicholas Figueroa 

• RIP Moises Locón 

• Dedicating Moises Locón Way and Nicholas Figueroa Way on 2nd Avenue at 7th Street

Remembering Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón

Today marks the seventh anniversary of the deadly Second Avenue gas explosion, killing two men and leveling three buildings (119, 121 and 123 Second Ave.).

There is a memorial plaque for the two men who died that day — Nicholas Figueroa and Moises Locón.

Officials dedicated this plaque last May. The Village Preservation advocated for its placement here on the new residential building at 45 E. Seventh St. 

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• RIP Nicholas Figueroa 

• RIP Moises Locón 

• Dedicating Moises Locón Way and Nicholas Figueroa Way on 2nd Avenue at 7th Street

Dedicating Moises Locón Way and Nicholas Figueroa Way on 2nd Avenue at 7th Street

City officials this morning unveiled the new street blades that co-name the northwest corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street after Moises Locón, 27, and Nicholas Figueroa, 23, who died in the gas explosion here on March 26, 2015.

Ana and Nixon, parents of Nicholas Figueroa, and Alfredo Locón, brother of Moises Locón, were at the dedication as well as several local elected officials and first responders at the time of the explosion.

This was a healing moment for all. #eastvillage Photo: Cora Cofield pic.twitter.com/rmpHCitVr5

— Rosie Mendez (@RosieMendez) October 14, 2017

Officials say that illegal gas tampering caused the explosion.

Photos by Steven

Previously on EV Grieve:
RIP Nicholas Figueroa

RIP Moises Ismael Locón Yac

A proposal to co-name part of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street after the victims of the 2015 gas explosion

Street co-naming ceremony Saturday for the 2 victims of the 2nd Avenue gas explosion

Street co-naming ceremony Saturday for the 2 victims of the 2nd Avenue gas explosion

Last spring, City Council approved co-naming the northwest corner of Seventh Street and Second Avenue Moises Locón and Nicholas Figueroa Way.

Locón, 27, and Figueroa, 23, were killed in the gas explosion here on March 26, 2015, that also destroyed three buildings, 119-123 Second Ave.

This Saturday morning at 11, city officials will be on-hand on this corner for the official co-name ceremony ...



Organizers who were behind the co-naming hope that the street sign bearing the names of the two men will both help commemorate their loss and serve as a warning against unscrupulous landlords.

In a story at DNAinfo on the co-naming proposal this past May, Ana Lanza, Figueroa's mother, said, "It's not going to bring him back — nothing is going to bring him back. But at least this brings a little bit of comfort, that he's going to be remembered somewhere, somehow. That his life wasn't taken in vain. That he meant something."

Authorities have said that illegally siphoned gas at 121 Second Ave. was to blame for the explosion. In February 2016, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance's office charged landlord Maria Hrynenko and her son Michael Hrynenko Jr. along with contractor Dilber Kukic and plumber Jerry Ioannidis with manslaughter in the second degree, criminally negligent homicide and assault in the second degree, among other charges.

According to an obituary, Michael Jr. died on Aug. 25 at age 31.

The criminal case has yet to go to trial while the multiple civil actions are still making their way through the courts.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Updated: 2nd Ave. explosion — landlord, 3 others charged with 2nd degree manslaughter; showed 'a blatant and callous disregard for human life'

Memorial for Mary Spink tomorrow

RIP Nicholas Figueroa

RIP Moises Ismael Locón Yac

A proposal to co-name part of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street after the victims of the 2015 gas explosion

Michael Hrynenko, Jr., awaiting trial for his role in the 2nd Avenue gas explosion, dies at 31

City approves co-naming the northwest corner of 7th Street and 2nd Avenue Moises Locón and Nicholas Figueroa Way

The northwest corner of Seventh Street and Second Avenue will be co-named Moises Locón and Nicholas Figueroa Way for the two victims of the gas explosion here on March 26, 2015.

A volunteer who helped with the co-naming efforts told us that City Council approved the bill on May 24. As we understand it, there will not be a mayoral signing ceremony for the legislation, and it will go into law on June 23. It then usually takes the Department of Transportation six weeks to prepare the new street blades.

Members of CB3's Transportation & Public Safety/Environment Committee and the full CB3 board signed off on the proposal last month.

Organizers behind the co-naming hope that the street sign bearing the names of the two men will both help commemorate their loss and serve as a warning against unscrupulous landlords.

In February 2016, the DA charged landlord Maria Hrynenko and her son, Michael Hrynenko Jr., with involuntary manslaughter ... as well as contractor Dilber Kukic and an unlicensed plumber, Athanasios Ioannidis. (A fifth person, Andrew Trombettas, faces charges for supplying his license to Ioannidis.) All pleaded not guilty.

Authorities have said that siphoned gas at the Hrynenko-owned 121 Second Ave. was to blame for the explosion, which killed Locón and Figueroa, and injured two dozen other people. The blast also destroyed three buildings.

Figueroa, 23, a recent graduate of SUNY Buffalo State, was at Sushi Park with a co-worker. Locón, an employee at Sushi Park, was 27.

In a story at DNAinfo last month on the co-naming proposal, Ana Lanza, Figueroa's mother, said, "It's not going to bring him back — nothing is going to bring him back. But at least this brings a little bit of comfort, that he's going to be remembered somewhere, somehow. That his life wasn't taken in vain. That he meant something."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Updated: 2nd Ave. explosion — landlord, 3 others charged with 2nd degree manslaughter; showed 'a blatant and callous disregard for human life'

Memorial for Mary Spink tomorrow

RIP Nicholas Figueroa

RIP Moises Ismael Locón Yac

A proposal to co-name part of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street after the victims of the 2015 gas explosion

Members of CB3's Transportation & Public Safety/Environment Committee will hear a proposal this month to co-name Second Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place after the two men who died in the gas explosion here on March 26, 2015.

Authorities have said that siphoned gas at 121 Second Ave. was to blame for the explosion, which killed Moises Ismael Locón Yac and Nicholas Figueroa, and injured two dozen other people.

Figueroa, 23, a recent graduate of SUNY Buffalo State, was at Sushi Park with a co-worker. Locón, an employee at Sushi Park, was 27. Locón sent most of his paycheck back to his family in Guatemala, where he worked as a school teacher before moving to the United States in 2008.

Here's more information about the street co-naming proposal via a petition:

In memory of these young men, we ask that our community honor their lives and demonstrate to their families who their loss was also our loss and that we share in their sorrow by co-naming these blocks.

The petition must be signed by a minimum 75 percent of the total number of residential units and 75 percent of the total number of businesses on these blocks. (We appreciate the support, but do not need signatures from elsewhere in the neighborhood. The petitions will be available at neighboring businesses.)

If approved, then City Council will vote on this in May or June. If passed in the City Council, we will set a date with the Department of Transportation for a street blade installation and have a street co-naming event.

Here's a document (PDF) with more information on CB3's guidelines for co-naming a street. (If you have any questions or want to get more involved, then please email nicholasandmoises [at] gmail [dot] com.)

The committee meeting is May 9 at 6:45 p.m. at Downtown Art, 1st Floor Theater, 70 E. Fourth St. between the Bowery and Second Avenue.

The committee is also expected to hear a request to co-name Second Street between Avenue A and Avenue B for Mary Spink.

Spink, a local business owner and member of CB3, was a community activist and later served as executive director of Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Association. She died in January 2012 at age 64.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Updated: 2nd Ave. explosion — landlord, 3 others charged with 2nd degree manslaughter; showed 'a blatant and callous disregard for human life'

Memorial for Mary Spink tomorrow

RIP Nicholas Figueroa

RIP Moises Ismael Locón Yac

A memorial on 2nd Avenue

[Photo by Lola Sáenz]

There was a memorial tonight for Moises Ismael Locón Yac and Nicholas Figueroa, the two victims of the Second Avenue explosion on this date last year...


[LS]


[Photo by EVG reader Daniel]


[Photo by EVG reader Daniel]

Baiting stations arrive at the 2nd Avenue explosion site

An EVG reader passes along word about the recent (Friday?) arrival of baiting stations on Second Avenue and East Seventh Street, the site where three buildings (Nos. 119-121-123) were destroyed in the deadly gas explosion this past March 26.



According to the city's Rat Information Portal, there are "Active Rat Signs" at 123 Second Ave., the address of one of the buildings lost on March 26.

The reader also noted the unfortunate proximity of the baiting stations to the memorials for Moises Ismael Locón Yac and Nicholas Figueroa, the two men who died in the explosion.

A family continues to feel the loss on 2nd Avenue

The following is from photographers James and Karla Murray today...

Nicholas Figueroa's father tends to his son's memorial at 121 Second Ave., the site of the March 26 gas explosion and fire that killed his son.

His mother talked to us about the loss of their 23-year-old son and how hard it has been coping with it.

Today, his father placed a statue of Mary and keepsake box at the memorial and also tended to the memorial for the other victim, Moises Ismael Locón Yac.

Mrs. Figueroa gave her OK to post the above photo because she doesn't want anyone to forget the tragedy. Per the Murrays: "Their feelings of anger and loss are still understandably very raw and intense."

Posters arrive to memorialize Moises Ismael Locón Yac and Nicholas Figueroa on 2nd Avenue

Several EVG readers noted early last evening that a woman was adding these poster-sized tributes to the plywood surrounding the Second Avenue explosion site at East Seventh Street...



Moises Ismael Locón Yac and Nicholas Figueroa died during the blast at 121 Second Ave. on March 26.

Photos today via Derek Berg

Remembering Moises Ismael Locón Yac on 2nd Avenue

[Photo Thursday by Derek Berg]

On Thursday, the family of Nicholas Figueroa, one of the two men who died in the March 26 gas explosion at 121 Second Ave., created a makeshift memorial in his honor on the plywood at the scene of the disaster.

Yesterday, East Village resident Lola Sáenz added an In Memoriam and flowers for the second victim — Moises Ismael Locón Yac …


[Photo by Lola Sáenz]

Locón worked at Sushi Park, and, according to media accounts, sent most of his paycheck back to his family in Guatemala.

Sáenz said that she did it because his family is in Guatemala, and likely wouldn't have the opportunity to do it themselves.

"He was loved," Sáenz told us. "He mattered."

She also included a copy of the painting that she said was inspired by the explosion.



"It was so sad what happened," she said. "It broke my heart."

You can read more about the painting and Sáenz's work here.