NYC Building Collapse: Police Confirm Gas Line Tampering

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The New York Sun

NEW YORK (AP) – Investigators have confirmed that a gas line leading into the basement of a landmark Manhattan town house was tampered with before the home was destroyed by a ferocious explosion that punctuated an exceedingly ugly divorce, authorities said Tuesday.

Someone rigged flexible plastic tubing with a brass radiator valve to the main gas line in the basement of the Upper East Side building, said Louis Garcia, the city’s chief fire marshal.

With the valve left open, gas was able to flow freely into the house for hours before it was flattened by the blast.

At a briefing near the scene of the explosion, Garcia said this was not an accident.

“We’re saying this is intentional,” Garcia said, adding later “anybody who is handy could do this.”

Authorities have been investigating whether Dr. Nicholas Bartha, the lone occupant during the blast, might have caused the explosion Monday morning rather than sell town house as part of a divorce judgment favoring his ex-wife. Bartha, a physician who lived and worked in the four-story building, remained in critical condition after being rescued from the rubble.

Detectives “want to talk to him, but haven’t been able to because the extent of his injuries,” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

Bartha, 66, became a possible suspect after police got a 911 call from his ex-wife, Cordula Bartha. She told them that shortly before the explosion he had sent her a rambling e-mail saying she would soon would be “transformed from gold digger to ash and rubbish digger.”

The husband went on by warning her, “You always wanted me to sell the house. I always told you I will leave the house only if I am dead.”

The explosion hurled fireballs high into the sky and left the upscale block covered in bricks, broken glass and splintered wood. Authorities said at least 15 people were injured, including five civilians and 10 firefighters.

The 19th-century town house on 62nd Street between Park and Madison avenues _ just a few blocks from Central Park _ once served as a secret meeting place for a group of prominent New Yorkers who informally gathered intelligence for President Franklin D. Roosevelt before and during World War II.

The building was worth nearly $5 million based on a 2004 assessment and as much as $6.4 million in today’s market. It was to be sold at auction in October to pay a $4 million judgment against Bartha, though his ex-wife had predicted he wouldn’t leave without a fight.

“He has said many times that he intends to ‘die in my house,'” Cordula Bartha said in a petition filed last year.

The court records paint a picture of a bitter dispute that dragged on for five years.

According to a 2005 appellate court opinion, the doctor had “intentionally traumatized” his Jewish wife, who was born in Nazi-occupied Holland, by posting “swastika-adorned articles and notes” around their home. The opinion also said Bartha had “ignored her need for support and assistance while she was undergoing surgery and treatment for breast cancer.”

Power company Consolidated Edison had been at the building on June 8 after a routine check found a gas leak in the pipe.

The gas was shut off, and Nicholas Bartha was asked to get the pipe fixed, a spokesman said. The gas was turned back on after the utility ensured the leak was fixed.


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