This surveillance video shows an SUV exploding on 133rd Street in South Ozone Park. You can see parts of the vehicle fly into nearby homes and cars.
“I was in my apartment with my kids. We hear this big boom. And it’s like lightning we saw like lightning. So I told my kids. Get out. Get out, you guys get out. So we quickly. I grabbed my stuff with my passport. You know I don’t know what is next. We run out,” Ernana Fredericks, a resident, said.
Neighbors found parts of the vehicle in trees and on nearby driveways.
Fire officials say emergency calls came in just before 7 a.m. Friday. FDNY units and NYPD bomb squad responded to the scene. Fire marshalls say the blast came from a malfunctioning pressurized gas cylinder stored in the back of the vehicle.
“I got the call and 15 minutes later I was here and the car was completely gone,” Dinell Harricharen, a car owner, said.
Harricharen owns the Infiniti SUV that blew up and uses it and the gas cannister for work as a plumber.
“Just has a gas tank and tools. Battery-operated tools.”// “Just have to pick up the pieces and try to get new tools cause that’s my lifeline,” he said.
The force of the blast damaged five nearby homes and five vehicles. Residents say they are grateful no one was hurt.
“Happy that everybody’s okay, nobody was damaged,” Fredericks said. “The most important thing, but it’s just what could have happened, you know, a lot of that issue.”
“Thank god for that. Thank god nobody got hurt,” Harricharen said.
The FDNY says lithium-ion batteries were in the vehicle, but were did not ignite or fuel the fire.
Officials remind New Yorkers that if not properly stored, these cylinders can be dangerous.
“With gas cylinders acetylene cylinders, they have to be stored upright, they can’t be stored on their side. So that will be things that are being looked at, but especially people in the industry should be very well aware of the safety procedures and the best practices to make sure that equipment is being utilized properly and safely,” George Healy, FDNY Deputy Chief, said.
The FDNY says it is still investigating what ignited the blast.
Fire officials say they are looking into whether an automatic starter for the car played a role, however the owner tells NY1 that was not used.
