News

Cleaning up after Midtown pipe blast

Thursday, July 19, 2007

(New York - WABC, July 19, 2007) (WABC) -- Parts of Midtown are still off limits following a Wednesday's deadly steam pipe blast. The eruption near Grand Central Terminal is now blamed for the death of 51-year-old Lois Baumerich of Hawthorne, New Jersey.

More than 40 others were hurt -- two of them critically.

Preliminary tests show no asbestos in the air. However, some asbestos has been found in the dust and debris.

At an evening press conference, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said 71 tests were conducted on the dust, and 14 came back positive for asbestos. Twelve showed trace amounts and two showed major amounts. But Bloomberg said those could be because of the insulation containing asbestos, so the tests could essentially have been testing asbestos for asbestos.

Bloomberg also said all surrounding buildings must be tested and cleared before residents and businesses can return. Building owners will be responsible to qualified inspectors to inspect any area exposed to the explosion. If the tests come back positive, certified contractors must be hired to clean the areas, which will then be reoccupied. Owners can get more information by calling 311

Bloomberg says the cleanup could take several days, but that safety is the city's number one priority. He says safety will not be compromised.

Late Thursday night, fire crews were hard at work hosing down buildings around the site. It's all in an effort to cleanup the debris left by the powerful blast of steam that erupted from the ground before 6 p.m. on Wednesday near 41st Street between 3rd Avenue and Lexington Avenue. hit, there was chaos.

Everyday Heroes

While most people were running for their lives away from the steam pipe explosion, others were going in the other direction towards the falling debris and the scorching steam.

Eyewitness News reporter Jen Maxfield introduces you to two heroes who thought nothing of their own safety and just focused on helping the victims.

Officer Robert Mirfield stands in the wake of the steam pipe explosion, his helmet and uniform covered in debris. Blood drips down his arm. He cut it while breaking open a locked gate that had trapped 75 workers inside their office lobby.

"It was raining down mud, rocks, pieces of debris, a lot of glass was coming down, it was very chaotic," said NYPD officer Robert Mirfield.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly had kind words for Mirfield, after his heroics on the job yesterday. "I think the response was terrific," Kelly said.

Along with other emergency services officers, Mirfield helped evacuate hundreds of people from the immediate area around the blast. And then, when the dust cleared, he was there to comfort his fellow officers.

"I fell back on my training, I didn't do much thinking, I just acted," Mirfield said.

Financial journalist Kieran Beer doesn't have any emergency training at all. But that didn't stop him from sheparding an injured woman out of the danger zone, to an ambulance three blocks away.

"You should always help someone, that's what makes life worth living," he said.

Stopping in the middle of the chaos to help a stranger came naturally to beer. He never found out the woman's name, and he says if she's watching, he'd like to know she's okay.

"I would love to know that she was fine and reunited with her family, not long after that I was reunited with my family," Beer said.

There are likely many other stories like these, about strangers helping strangers make it through a traumatic experience.

Several streets in Midtown are still off limits:

Frozen Zone:

Street Closures -- The Frozen Zone is between 40th and 43rd streets, between Vanderbilt and Third avenues. There is no access from outside the zone.

Other streets that are closed will be opened as warranted:

Lexington Avenue is closed from 57th Street to 38th Street. Officials say the work there, including the repairing of the crater, could extend into the greater part of next week.

Park Avenue is closed from 54th Street to 34th Street

42nd Street is closed from Park Avenue to Third Avenue. Bloomberg hopes the cleanup will be done by Monday.

The closures are causing a traffic nightmare, with huge delays around the closed areas. Bloomberg says the strategy is to continue shrinking the zone and opening sections as quickly as possible.

SUBWAYS and BUSES

Subway service restored at Grand Central Station. The entrance at the intersection of 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue is now open.

No. 4, 5, 6 and 7 trains are now stopping at Grand Central-42nd Street Station in both directions.

S service has also been restored in both directions between the Times Square-42nd Street Station and the Grand Central-42nd Street Station.

Due to the street closures in Mid-town Manhattan, the following diversions will be used until further notice:

X2 and X5 Staten Island Bound
Via: 57th Street to 5th Avenue
Left (south) on 5th Avenue to 34th Street
Left (east) on 34th Street to Lexington Avenue
Right (south) on Lexington Avenue and Regular

X22 and X31 Staten Island Bound
Via: 57th Street to 5th Avenue
Left (south) on 5th Avenue to 42nd Street
Right (west) on 42nd Street and Regular

All effected bus stops along Lexington Avenue will be signed to use the existing X1 stops along 5th Avenue.

While the frozen zone is in effect, please expect delays on the M42, M98, M101, M102, M103 and M104 bus routes.

METRO NORTH

Hudson, Harlem and New Haven line trains are operating on a regular schedule.

Many entrances/exits in Grand Central Terminal remain closed. The following entrances/exits are open for customer use:

42nd Street and the corner of Vanderbilt Avenue (new addition)

Vanderbilt Avenue

The Met Life Building

The four Grand Central North entrances/exits at the following locations:

47 Street/Madison Avenue, 48th Street/Park Avenue, and the two entrances in the Helmsley Building Walkways on 45th Street opposite the Met Life Building

The entrance/exit to Grand Central at 45th Street between Madison and Vanderbilt Avenues through the Roosevelt (Hotel) Passageway.

The Aftermath:

The focus at the area is on the cleanup and health concerns. All city employees going into the frozen zones were isuued particle masks, even though the DEP has not found any asbestos in the air. Some traces were found in the dust and debris.

On Thursday, a layer of dust covered the cars and the traffic light at 41st Street in Lexington, where the steam pipe blew through the pavement yesterday, spewing high pressure dirt and rocks high into the air. Workers are carefully cleaning up around the 15- by 25-foot crater.

Though the DEP says the air is not positive for asbestos, there is still skepticism.

"Look what happened with 9/11, they said the air was fine," one city resident said. "We don't know."

The Office of Emergency Management has handed out more than 7,000 particle masks so far.

"We have city employees who are out on the street in the frozen zone, we want to make sure they're protected," an official said. "It's for all city employees who are working down here in general."

Everyone remembers 9/11, but officials stress that this was not a terrorist attack. Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a news conference last night and assured New Yorkers it was not a deliberate act, but a natural disaster.

"There is no reason to believe that any terrorism was involved whatsoever," he said. "It was probably just the failure of part of our infrastructure."

That infrastructure, a 24-inch pipe, was installed in 1924. Engineers say cold water may have seeped into the pipe, causing it to explode.

One Dead:

A 51-year-old Hawthorne, New Jersey, woman who had just started a new job died after going into cardiac arrest when the pipe exploded just feet from where she stood.

Eyewitness News is told Lois Baumerich suffered the heart attack just before 6 p.m. yesterday. She complained of chest pains and was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where she died about an hour later.

Baumerich had likely just left her new job at Pfizer, a block away on 42nd Street, when the underground explosion tore through the street, company spokesman Bryant Haskins said.

"We want to emphasize that this is a very sad situation for us, and we will do whatever we can to help her family," Haskins said.

She began working at Pfizer only six months ago and was a director in the company's legal division, within the employment law unit.

"My understanding is she worked for AT&T for a number of years," Haskins said. "[Pfizer Chairman and CEO Jeff Kindler] sent a message to employees this morning letting them know about these sad circumstances."

Pfizer said their 42nd Street building is closed because it is in the frozen zone and not accessible to employees. The legal division is based in that facility.

The Injured:

Once the pipe exploded, hundreds of people went running for cover.

Many of those caught in the blast were injured by flying debris, including NYPD Officer Robert Mirfield. But he still managed to evacuate 75 people trapped in a nearby office building by cutting open a gate.

We are also learning more about one of those seriously injured, a tow truck driver who was directly above the explosion.

Stacey Sager has the story from Dyker Heights.

The victim works at a Shell gas station in Brooklyn, and co-workers say he is just 23 years old. It seems Greg McCullough was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Co-workers say he is severely burned.

When we first saw the tow truck inside the gaping hole on Lexington Avenue, it was hard to imagine how the driver got out alive. Sweltering steam was pumping out of the hole beneath him with the force of a volcano.

McCullough's boss and co-workers say they are in disbelief.

"My brother just went to go visit him in the hospital, and he's in pretty bad shape," boss Tom Mule said. "Eighty percent of his body is burned. They have him on a respiratory machine."

They say McCullough is a very hard worker and was on his way home from a job in the Bronx. It was a catastrophic, yet random accident, and now they say all they can do is pray.

"I spoke to the mother this morning, and let her know that I considered him one of my friends," dispatcher Scott Ford said.

"I had goose bumps," co-worker John Edward said. "As soon as I saw that, I was shaking...It could've been anyone. I take that route all the time. It could've been me."

Authorities say McCullough remains in medically induced coma at the New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Burn Center. Officials say he is not allowed visitors, and family members say all they can do is pray.

More than 30 other people were rushed from the scene to Bellevue Hospital with injuries.

Asbestos Concerns:

Following yesterday's steam main rupture at Lexington Avenue and 41st Street, Con Edison and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) conducted extensive air monitoring in the area and tested numerous samples of muddy debris for the presence of asbestos. Air monitoring confirmed no airborne asbestos, however, several of the numerous samples of muddy debris taken from the area were found to contain asbestos.

Anyone who was in that area around 6 p.m. who has dust or debris on clothing or belongings should put them in a plastic bag and bring it to the Con Edison customer service van parked at the corner of Madison Avenue and 42nd Street. The van will be at that location for the next several days from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Con Edison will arrange for the safe disposal of these items. Customer care personnel will be available to help people fill out a reimbursement request.

Con Edison has opened a second customer van to receive clothing from the steam explosion and hand out claim forms.

The vans are at:

42nd Street and Madison Avenue.

Lexington Avenue between 45th and 46th avenues.

The New York City Department of Health (DOH) has a fact sheet that provides additional information about asbestos. Visit the DOH Web site for more information by clicking on the following link: http://home2.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/ei/eiasbest.shtml.

Approximately 400 specially trained Con Edison employees and certified contractors, in conjunction with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), worked through the night: performing tests on muddy debris and monitoring the air. Together with the DEP, the company has developed a comprehensive plan to remove muddy debris from buildings, streets and vehicles.

Crews also cleaned muddy debris from Third Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets. The company is working to restore service to electric feeder cables and is running temporary cables. In addition, crews excavated and inspected the gas system for possible damage. Fire trucks that responded to the event were decontaminated.

Background Information on Pipes:

Millions of pounds of steam are pumped beneath New York City streets every hour, heating and cooling thousands of buildings, including the Empire State Building. The steam pipes are sometimes prone to rupture, however.

In 1989, a gigantic steam explosion ripped through a street, killing three people and sending mud and debris several stories into the air.That explosion was caused by a condition known as "water hammer," the result of condensation of water inside a steam pipe.

Con Edison urges Customers in East Midtown to Reduce their use of Electricity:

Con Edison is urging all customers in the East Midtown area of Manhattan to discontinue their use of non-essential electrical appliances and equipment until problems on electrical cables can be resolved following the steam-main rupture. There are no electric service outages in this area and customer cooperation will help ensure uninterrupted service.

The affected area includes approximately 14,000 customers, and is bounded by East 39 to 57 Streets, the F.D.R. Drive to Park Avenue.

Company crews are working to repair the problem. Con Edison has asked managers of large commercial buildings to reduce their electricity use and is asking residential customers in this area not to use appliances such as washers, dryers, air conditioners and other energy-intensive equipment during peak hours of 1 p.m .to 6 p.m .and to turn off lights and televisions when not in use until the cable problems are resolved.

The equipment problems in East Midtown have no effect on the rest of the Con Edison system. The company will provide updates as the situation warrants and is in constant communication with the New York City Office of Emergency Management.

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