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From The New York Times this afternoon:
The investigation into the explosion and fire on Thursday that reduced three buildings in the East Village to rubble and injured more than 19 people is focusing on plumbing and gas work that appears to have been done without a permit at a restaurant on the ground floor of one of the buildings, according to city officials and public records.
The restaurant in question was Sushi Park at 121 Second Ave. Head on over to the article here... it gets a little complicated about who did (or didn't do) what and when.
Updated 6:23 p.m. DNAinfo has more about what may have likely happened at the scene.
Investigators believe a worker may have turned off gas to the original, improperly used pipe, before Con Edison arrived in order to prevent them from discovering that it was being improperly tapped, sources said.
Con Edison workers inspected the new, larger pipe, but once again it did not pass muster, and Con Ed refused to turn on gas to it, and they departed.
Investigators suspect that once they left, a worker went back to the original pipe, and somehow damage the pipe when he turn the gas back on and created the leak, which exploded a short time later.
Read more here.
