Two people are missing after a Manhattan building burst into flames and partially collapsed on Thursday in what is believed to be the result of a gas explosion.
Nicholas Figueroa, one of the missing, was on a date at a Sushi restaurant on the ground floor of the East Village building at around 3:30 p.m. when the blast occurred, the New York Daily News reported. The 23-year-old's date remembers stumbling out of the building on Second Avenue amid the flames and chaos but cannot recall what happened to Figueroa.
Officials say 25 people were injured, four of them critically, after the gas-related explosion scattered debris everywhere and sent firefighters racing to extinguish the seven-alarm fire. Surrounding buildings also collapsed after the explosion.
More people were reported missing but they have been accounted for, CNN reported. The name of the second missing person was not immediately known.
Figueroa's family said they know he was at the Sushi Park restaurant when the blast occurred because his bank statement shows he paid his bill at the location. The last time he spoke to his family was at around 2 p.m. Thursday, the Daily News reported.
"I saw him this morning and he was sleeping on the couch and I didn't think nothing of it," Neal Figueroa said of his missing brother, who works at a Manhattan bowling alley.
"Right now we don't really know what to do; we're just praying," his father Nick told the newspaper.
The blast appears to have been a gas explosion related to ongoing plumbing and gas work in the building, according to the Associated Press.
