Officials: Blast Rocks Midtown Tower, Injuring Five
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Five people were injured this morning in a chemical explosion on the top floor of the News Corporation tower in Midtown, officials said.
The top four floors of the building were evacuated after the explosion, which was caused when two chemicals came in contact during a routine audit of the building’s climate control system, the director of the hazardous materials unit at the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Enzo Catanzaro, said.
The fire department was first called about the incident at about 8:30 a.m., fire officials said.
Three inspectors from the department of environmental protection, a battalion chief in the fire department, and a building manager were injured in the blast, fire department officials said.
One of the inspectors sustained a large cut on his head, Mr. Catanzaro said. The firefighter was taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital with chest pains, fire officials said. None of the injuries are believed to be life threatening, officials said.
Roughly 700 people were evacuated from the building, Fox News reported.
The 45-story News Corporation building at 1211 6th Ave. houses the offices of the Fox Broadcasting Company and The New York Post.
Employees that were evacuated have been allowed back into the building, Mr. Cantanzaro said.
