A massive fiery explosion at a Queens home sent several New York City police officers flying into the air as they responded to a call of a man inside armed with a knife and smelling gas.
New York — A massive fiery explosion at a Queens home sent several New York City police officers flying into the air early Thursday morning as they responded to a call of a man inside armed with a knife and smelling gas.
Police said eight officers were treated for minor injuries — including burns and at least one laceration to the head — after the explosion, and all people who were inside the building have been identified, although several were taken to hospital.
Police body camera video of the explosion shows officers about to enter a small house in Queens just before 3 a.m., and just as one begins to open the door, a huge explosion erupts, shattering windows and knocking officers across the yard and into the gate. Officers can then be seen scrambling to recover from the wreckage as smoke billows from the house, checking on each other to see if anyone was hurt.
“Are you good?” One of the officers can be heard saying.
The video then cuts off after about a minute and shows an officer helping two young children out of the house while a handful of other people exit the house.
“I want to be clear: We got lucky today, all right,” NYPD Assistant Chief Christopher McIntosh said at a news conference hours later. “This could have turned out really differently.”
“Fortunately, luck was on their side today,” he said of the officers.
The man who made the initial call arrived home drunk and carrying a knife and two trash bags filled with packages containing an “unknown substance,” McIntosh said. He pushed the air conditioning unit to get to the basement apartment where his wife, daughter and two grandchildren lived.
They eventually managed to flee the building and officers arrived shortly afterwards. The man is missing, McIntosh said.
Authorities said the house collapsed after the explosion. Neighboring homes were also damaged.