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Deadly NYC Explosion Levels Church, Apartments

09-08-2014
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At least a half dozen people are now confirmed to have been killed in an explosion that flattened two New York City apartment buildings.

Firefighters recovered the bodies a man and a woman this morning, but several people are still considered missing.

A gas leak triggered the blasts Wednesday morning on Park Avenue and 116th street in East Harlem.

The incident injured more than 60 people and destroyed a storefront church that has been around for decades.

The Spanish Christian Church recently celebrated its 80th anniversary. Church leaders say there's already a lot of prayer and support for rebuilding their sanctuary.

Rev. Thomas Perez told The New York Times the church was waiting for information on a few missing tenants.

"God is getting me through this," he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is helping guide the investigation, where there are reports people complained of gas odors in the weeks before the blast.

"We will people looking at Con Edison's call logs to see when the first calls started coming in to report such," NTSB's Robert Sumwalt told reporters. "That will definitely be part of our investigation."

A more than century-old cast iron pipeline supplied gas to the building.

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