Two Men Remain Missing as Remnants of Explosion Are Scoured in Manhattan - New York Times

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Firefighters on Saturday searched the rubble after an explosion and fire leveled three buildings in the East Village on Thursday. Credit Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

With hopes fading in the search for two men who have been missing since an explosion jolted a stretch of the East Village, emergency workers on Saturday continued to scour the debris of the three buildings that were destroyed on Thursday in the blast and ensuing fire.

Workers hauled axes, hammers and hooks as two cranes transferred debris to trash bins and heaps piled atop Second Avenue. Teams used rakes to pick through what remained.

The blocks adjacent to the site, near the intersection of East Seventh Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan, remained behind police barricades, guarded by officers wearing face masks.

Officials on Saturday night reported little progress in the search at the site, where pockets of fire still smoldered.

Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said excavation work would most likely take a week.

“It’s going to be slow and arduous to dig and search through the rubble,” he said outside a firehouse near the site.

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One of the missing men, Nicholas Figueroa, 23, was on a date at Sushi Park, a restaurant on the first floor of 121 Second Avenue, the site of the explosion, when the blast occurred. A bank statement showed he had just paid for lunch at the time, his family said. The second missing person, Moises Ismael Locón Yac, 27, was a busboy at the restaurant.

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A Facebook photo of Nicholas Figueroa, 23, who was on a date at Sushi Park, at 121 Second Avenue, when the blast happened.

The explosion and inferno injured at least 22 people, four of them critically. Though officials have cautioned that the investigation remains in its early stages, Mayor Bill de Blasio has said that a gas line at 121 Second Avenue may have been “inappropriately accessed internally by people in the building.” Those living near the scene of the devastation awoke on Saturday to a din of emergency vehicles, generators and machinery that could be heard blocks away.

One firefighter at the scene said that fire companies were working in three-hour installments, adding that a K-9 unit had begun an initial search for bodies.

At the corner of St. Marks Place and Second Avenue, a poster taped to the facade of the Dallas BBQ restaurant urged residents to look for Mr. Figueroa. Another flier encouraged attendance at a vigil held on Friday night at a nearby church. “Come together,” it read, “and help send prayers of healing and comfort to all who are affected by this tragedy.”

On Saturday afternoon, Mr. de Blasio visited a firehouse on Great Jones Street, a few blocks from the explosion site, to thank firefighters and emergency workers for their efforts on Thursday.

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Moises Ismael Locón Yac, 27, who is missing in the blast, was a busboy at Sushi Park.

“You guys were all over it,” he said, shaking hands. “Really appreciate it.”

Officials said the city had lifted “full vacate orders” for five buildings on Second Avenue across from the site; three other buildings remained closed.

Around the neighborhood, some of those affected by the explosion seemed eager to resume their routines.

At around 7 a.m., Eric Gustafson, 31, arrived from Jackson Heights, Queens, to check in on a ice cream shop, Van Leeuwen, where he works as a manager. He had done the same the morning before, only to learn that the store would remain closed behind the police barricades. On Saturday, nothing had changed.

Hoping to determine whether the shop might open in the next few days, Mr. Gustafson approached a police officer who was standing at a barricade. He was told that reopening on Sunday morning was possible, but would be “aggressive.”

“I’ve been shaken the past couple of days,” Mr. Gustafson said, “but we do need to work.”

Nate Schweber contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on March 29, 2015, on page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: Two Men Remain Missing As Remnants of Explosion Are Scoured in Manhattan .

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