Explosive Fire Collapses NYC Building

At least 19 people were injured, four of them critically, when an explosion and seven-alarm fire destroyed an apartment building and burned three other structures in New York City’s East Village Thursday. At an evening news conference, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said a preliminary investigation indicated that a gas explosion caused by plumbing and gas work in the building that collapsed was to blame. The New York Post reported that construction crews accidentally "hit a gas main."