East Harlem Gas Explosion (2014)
On March 12, 2014, two apartment buildings at 1644-1646 Park Avenue in East Harlem collapsed after a natural gas explosion, killing 8 people and injuring over 70. The National Transportation Safety Board found that faulty welding of Con Edison gas pipes combined with an eight-year-old unrepaired sewer main hole had caused pipes to sag and crack.
Con Edison paid $153.3 million in a settlement with New York State—the largest gas safety settlement in state history. Over 100 families were displaced.
The explosion, combined with the 2015 East Village blast, led to Local Law 152 requiring five-year gas line inspections. Con Edison accelerated its pipe replacement program, now spending nearly $600 million annually.
The 2014 explosion established the pattern of aging infrastructure failures in New York's housing stock and prompted the regulatory framework now governing gas safety—the same framework under which investigators will examine the Boston Secor incident.