NEWS | THE LONG-ISLANDER, OCTOBER 14, 2004

‘Buried In Rubble’

9 injured in blast at car dealership, including 3 rescued from debris

By Michael R. Sisak / The Long-Islander

A massive explosion reduced the two-story used car dealership at Habberstad Nissan in Huntington Station into a smoky heap of rubble, Tuesday afternoon, injuring nine people, including eight on the second floor and three who were rescued by firefighters after they became pinned between pockets of debris.

“It was like someone dropped a bomb on the building,” said Juan Vega, 27, a detailer who works in the service department at Habberstad Nissan.

Related Story:
The Heroes at Habberstad
(Long-Islander, Oct. 28, 2004)

The used car dealership, which stands alone from a larger structure that houses the showroom for new models and the service department, erupted into a mangled heap of metal, wood and glass at about 3:45 p.m., with a loud boom that was sparked by the ignition of leaked natural gas that built up in the basement, police said.

“I heard a big explosion, like an earthquake,” said Joseph Alacqua, 23, the manager of the Dunkin Donuts shop located a block northwest of the dealership, who was about one block east of the dealership when the blast occurred. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Fragmented remnants of the building shot across Jericho Turnpike, including panels of carpeting, splintered beams and a treacherous river of broken glass, as the 15 people who were inside looked for a way to escape.

Employees from the Habberstad showroom and service center and workers from neighboring businesses rushed toward the smoldering ruins.

Walter Shivers of Huntington, a waiter at Panama Hatties restaurant, located in a shopping center next to the blast site, ran into the collapsed structure and helped a group of Samaritans guide three people to safety.

“I just went running toward the building to see if I could help people,” Shivers said as caustic white smoke continued to pour from the rubble, nearly three hours after the blast.

“There were men holding up the side of the building; 20 guys making sure it wouldn’t come down any more,” said Shivers, of Huntington. “I went in, I heard voices, and I started trying to get people out.”

Rocky Marciano, a mechanic in the service department at Habberstad, heard the blast while he worked on a car. He and colleagues quickly ran to see what had happened, dug into the heap and helped the others guide four people to safety.

“It was a loud noise,” said Marciano, of Uniondale, as he stood behind a yellow police line with three other Habberstad employees. “We came outside and we saw the building on the floor. We were trying to make sure the building didn’t crush the other people.”

Firefighters from the Huntington Manor Fire Department, the volunteer corps that operates a substation directly across Jericho Turnpike from the dealership, were the first trained rescuers to respond to the 3:48 p.m. alarm for a “building collapse with possible people trapped inside,” according to chief John Glidden.

Firefighters climbed over debris and pulled their way through small holes along the exterior of the collapse to gain entry to the building. They searched for victims and pried the three people who were trapped by rubble to safety.

“They were in what is called a void in the collapse, which is open space, but they were surrounded by debris,” Glidden said. “They were literally buried in rubble.”

In total, nine people were transported by ambulance to Huntington Hospital for injuries that ranged from issues of mental shock and anguish to a man that was struck in the head and suffered a deep gash, according to Glidden. Three were held overnight and released on Wednesday.

“They were surrounded by debris. They were literally buried in rubble.”

A fire, propagated by a diet of flammable building materials, raged beneath the ruins well into darkness and fire officials continued to survey the scene from the boom bucket of a hook-and-ladder truck.

“It’s a judgment call, but when life’s on the line, we put our safety behind us and see if we can save people,” said Glidden.

Huntington Manor dispatched nearly its entire fleet to the scene, the chief said, including three rescue trucks, four engines, two ladder trucks and one technical rescue unit, and called on mutual aid assistance from departments in Huntington, Dix Hills, Greenlawn and Melville. The departments in Cold Spring Harbor, Centerport, Halesite and East Northport each sent ambulances and rescue crews to the scene and Suffolk County activated a mass casualty alert, the equivalent of a three-alarm fire.

The last major explosion in Huntington, in February 1987, flattened the Helping Hand Ministry on Broadway in Huntington Station. No one was injured. In May 1991, an intentionally set fire swept through a store in the Walt Whitman Mall, killing two people.

Dan Frank, who lives on Alpine Way, a quarter-mile away from Habberstad Nissan, rode his bike to the scene after he heard sirens and smelled smoke and saw victims being pulled to the substation lawn, which was being used as an emergency services staging area.

“I saw them carrying a couple of people out on backboards; they looked limp,” Frank said. “Just as I was rolling up, there was white smoke billowing out.”

While the firefighters continued to work, a team of engineers from KeySpan Energy, the natural gas supplier, arrived and descended beneath Jericho Turnpike through sidewalk manholes. A team of investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the federal agency in charge of arson investigations, arrived around 6:30 p.m.

After sifting through the ruins, Tuesday night, Arson Squad Commanding Officer Lt. Kevin Brennan spoke at police headquarters in Yaphank, yesterday, and confirmed the suspicions that the explosion had been caused by a natural gas leak.

“There was a leak in the gas main on the road along the south side of Jericho Turnpike,” Brennan said. “This building was not more than 50 feet south of that.”

‘[With] the right mixture of fuel and air, any spark can cause an explosion.’

Although there was no direct natural gas feed into the dealership, Brennan said, the liquid is lighter than air and has an innate tendency to gravitate toward other pipes as it rises from the ground. An underground water main connects to the basement of the dealership and served as the apparent entry point for the suspected gas.

“[With] the right mixture of fuel and air, any spark can cause an explosion,” Brennan said.

KeySpan spokeswoman Andrea Staub seconded Brennan’s determination and said that readings in the area in the hours after the explosion found pockets of natural gas in the street and within businesses in the area.

“KeySpan responded immediately and discovered a gas leak from a four-inch plastic pipe under the sidewalk,” Staub said. “What we’re doing right now is investigating how that leak actually happened.”

According to KeySpan, that investigation will include a look at the impact of recent third-party excavation work performed on cesspools and sidewalks in the area.

Town of Huntington Supervisor Frank Petrone, a former regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was on the scene shortly after the explosion and was briefed by officers as he stood in the middle of Jericho Turnpike, in front of the crumbled dealership, its red sign contorted like the tailfin of a crashed airliner.

Petrone reported at about 7 p.m. that security surveillance cameras at Habberstad had confirmed 15 people were in the building at the time of the explosion, that nine were injured and that all had been brought to safety.

The town, Pertrone said, was providing personnel, payload equipment, water pumps, barricades and public safety officers to help in the rescue and recovery effort. Furthermore, Petrone said, the town would work with police and state officials to attempt to partially reopen Jericho Turnpike, which had been closed since just before 4 p.m. from Dix Hills Road to Depot Road, sometime Tuesday night.

“The hope is that they will, at some point this evening, be able to open up one or two lanes of traffic,” Petrone said. The road remained closed until 2 a.m., yesterday morning.

As the night wore on, and smoke continued to billow, six volunteers from the American Red Cross served coffee, doughnuts and fresh sandwiches to weary firefighters, police officers and rescuers in the parking lot of the Dunkin’ Donuts shop.

Dawn Tropeano, administrator of the Red Cross’ regional office for Huntington and Smithtown, heard about the explosion on the radio as she drove along Oakwood Road in Huntington. She made a call to the fire department to confirm, and then sprung into action, calling in volunteers and directing the agency’s emergency response vehicle to the scene.

“We’re here to meet their needs to see that they can do their job,” Tropeano said, of the fire, police and rescue workers. “Our volunteers were ready at the moment.”

‘A lot of guys put their necks on the line to make sure people got out, and they weren’t rescue workers.’

Tropeano, who recently returned from helping hurricane victims in Florida, quickly made an agreement with the Dunkin’ Donuts, owned by Alacqua and his family, for the donation of coffee and pastries. The agency also received water and beverages from a Waldbaum’s supermarket up the block.

“It was extraordinary how this whole thing was coordinated and how people joined together for the betterment of their neighbors,” Petrone said. “They put people’s safety above theirs and then the fire department immediately started to fight this fire and start their rescue.”

At Habberstad, the aftermath of the explosion appeared to strengthen the bonds between employees and friends, who said they were thankful that the potential for fatalities and even greater tragedy had been avoided.

“We work here at Habberstad and we’re a family, we look out for each other,” Vega, the detailer who has been with the dealership for three years, said. “I’m proud to be part of this company. A lot of guys put their necks on the line to make sure people got out, and they weren’t rescue workers.”