Explosion of kitchen gas in apartment building injures more than 20 people

A leaky kitchen gas hose was blamed for an apartment building explosion that threw residents against walls, blew out their windows and hurled debris into the streets.

Photo: Explosion of kitchen gas in apartment building injures more than 20 people

The explosion Saturday injured more than 20 people, including four badly burned girls.

Fire marshals believe natural gas leaked from a flexible hose connection behind a stove in a first-floor apartment, fire department spokesman Tony Sclafani said Sunday.

Local utility Consolidated Edison earlier said investigators checked pipes going from the street to gas meters and apartments and found all of them to be working properly.

The burned children were in critical condition at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center.

The mother of the four girls, ages 1 to 5, was also in critical condition, said John Rogers, a hospital spokesman.

The father of the girls, Yemeni immigrant Rassas Alghaithi, told The New York Times after visiting the girls at the hospital: "I can't even recognize which is which." He said the girls were wrapped in bandages, with only their eyes visible.

Alghaithi, 27, said his wife was burned over a large swath of her body. His assessment was bleak. "She is not going to make it," he told the Times for its Monday editions.

The building has been shored up, but residents will not be allowed in until it is deemed safe for occupancy, said Robin Brooks, spokeswoman for the city's Department of Buildings.