2nd body found in Brooklyn blast rubble
NEW YORK (AP) — A second body was discovered Monday in the rubble of an apartment building that exploded over the weekend.
No identification has been made, and it could take time to identify the body. But authorities have said 47-year-old Francesca Figueroa was apparently moving out of the second floor of the Brooklyn building during the blast Saturday. Her sister, Nicura, told reporters she was missing.
"She's disappeared. I don't know. Nobody's found my sister," Nicura Figueroa told the Daily News of New York.
Authorities say the blast happened after a stove was removed from a gas line that may not have been properly disconnected. Nicura Figueroa told reporters her sister was cleaning out her apartment because her landlord pressured her to move, though it wasn't clear why.
"They wanted her to get out," Figueroa told the newspaper.
Messages left with the number believed to belong to the landlord were not returned.
City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said firefighters received a call at around 1 p.m. Saturday reporting an explosion at a building in the Borough Park neighborhood. When emergency crews arrived, they found the entire front of the three-story building blown into the street. The fire commissioner said no one had reported smelling gas in the area.
Ligia Puello, a tenant and native of the Dominican Republic, died in the explosion. She lived in a third-floor apartment with her daughter, who was away at the time.
Her body was discovered in a stairwell near the second floor, close to the apartment where the explosion started, officials said.
Three people walking by the building were hit by debris. Ten firefighters had minor injuries.
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