By Parveen Chopra, IANS
New York : One person died of cardiac arrest and 40 people were injured, a few of them suffering serious burn injuries, in an underground steam pipe explosion that propelled a giant jet of brownish steam and debris toward the sky in mid-Manhattan during rush hour Wednesday evening.
As the city with nightmarish memories of 9/11 feared the worse, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quick to clarify that the explosion in the busiest part of the town was caused by a failure of city infrastructure, not terrorism. The likely cause was cold water seeping into the steam pipe that was laid in the 1920s.
The explosion was so strong people felt buildings in the area would collapse. The cloud of steam – and the hail of debris that followed – lasted more than two hours and was as high as the skyscrapers in the area. The crater left by the explosion was so wide that a tow truck ended up in it. The crater could grow even larger because pavement at the edges was in danger of collapse.
Fire and rescue crews worked through Wednesday night to clean up after the explosion, but debris remained at the site this morning.
The authorities' other fear now was asbestos contamination of the air. Asbestos is a cancer-causing fireproofing material that might have been expelled by the blast. Though no air samples have tested positive for asbestos, the substance has been found in samples of muddy debris taken from the scene of explosion.
Health officials warned those in the area to wash their clothes and close their windows to guard against harmful asbestos. They assured, however, that no one was likely to have long-term health effects from brief exposure to asbestos, unlike the long-term debilitating health affects in those exposed to 9/11's deadly air.
Life was disrupted in parts of Manhattan. Several blocks around the site of the explosion on Lexington Avenue and 41st street near Grand Central train terminal on Manhattan east side were cordoned off. People were not allowed to enter the area because of cleanup work and environmental tests. Several office buildings around the explosion site stayed closed.
Many underground train services-called 'Subway'-remained suspended or were skipping the Grand Central station. Local buses running through the area have been rerouted.
Consolidated Edison, the company that maintains underground steam pipes and supplies electricity in the city, has urged people in the East Midtown area of Manhattan to discontinue their use of non-essential electrical appliances and equipment until problems on electrical cables are resolved.