On Friday morning, a plumber’s truck exploded on a quiet residential street in NYC, causing damage to several homes and nearby vehicles.
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Shocking footage shows the parked vehicle as it erupted in a ball of fire on a block in South Ozone Park, Queens, around 6:47 a.m.
An SUV exploded this morning in South Ozone Park, Queens. The owner of the SUV says he’s a plumber and he kept pressurized cylinders in there. Serval homes and cars were damaged but no one was hurt. @ABC7NY pic.twitter.com/WqY1t8deAL
— Janice Yu (@JaniceYuNews) November 8, 2024
Witnesses and officials also reported that the explosion caused significant damage to several nearby homes and vehicles. However, they noted that no one was injured in the resulting blast and fire.
Emergency crews quickly surrounded the charred vehicle and successfully extinguished the flames, fire officials reported during a briefing at the scene.
A plumbing truck filled with chemicals exploded in Queens. The explosion damaged five homes and five other cars
— PIX11 News (@PIX11News) November 8, 2024
Read more: https://t.co/ZHmz3VlraE pic.twitter.com/QETfGspLu2
Deepa Lalchand, a local who lives across the street from where the blast happened, recalled hearing the explosion. “We thought it was a freakin’ bomb!” she told local NYC outlet PIX 11. “That’s what it felt like in the house.”
Ernana Fredericks resides in the basement apartment of the house located on 133rd Street, right in front of where the vehicle explosion occurred.
“We hear this big boom, like lightning,” she recalled. “So I told my kids, ‘Get out! Get out!’”
The Plumber Explained at the Scene Why He Believes His Truck Exploded
The vehicle, an Infiniti SUV, belongs to Dinell Harricharan, who utilizes it to transport equipment for his plumbing work. Unfortunately, it was acetylene gas cylinders inside the car that exploded.
“It’s a MAPP gas that you use to torch your pipe, and you solder it,” Harricharan explained to PIX 11. “You heat and you solder it. It’s like a little gas tank,” he added.
“It probably had a small leak in it,” Harricharan continued, “[and] when a car passed by earlier, the alarm is sensitive. It set off the alarm, and it triggered it off.”
Meanwhile, fire officials reported that the vehicle was equipped with lithium-ion batteries. However, FDNY investigators determined that these batteries did not contribute to the explosion and subsequent fire. The incident is still under investigation, and Harricharan stated that he is fully cooperating with authorities.
However, Harricharan is left reeling, wondering how his plumbing business will recover following the explosion.
“The car’s our lifeline,” Harricharan lamented to The New York Post about the destroyed vehicle. “We have to start over, try to finance, and get everything back together.”