Developing News- Building Collapses in New York
 

From CNN.com
NEW YORK (CNN) -- An explosion and fire leveled a residential building on New York's Upper East Side Monday morning, fire officials and eyewitnesses told CNN.

At least one person was transported to the hospital, New York firefighters told CNN personnel on the scene.

Ann McGovern, a neighbor across the street from the three-story E. 62nd Street location, told CNN she "witnessed two bloody people exiting the building just minutes after the explosion."

read the rest here
My coworker who lives three blocks away from the building told me about this.

My friend works directly across the street. No one answered his office telephone number so I assume that either his building was evacuated or they couldn't even get into the office since this happened at 8:30 AM.

I'm in the area and had heard sirens for almost two hours.

The four story townhouse building which exploded contains doctors' offices and a duplex apartment where apparently a doctor lives.

The blast might have been caused by a suicidal doctor. http://www.wnbc.com/news/9490570/detail.html

ETA: I just heard that my friend who works across the street is fine. It's chaotic in that area.

OOPs.

I heard a natural gas leak and not terrosists!

That is just ridiculous...to take your life, endanger others, because you can't pay your debt and you are going through a bitter divorce...not worth it.

Captain Obvious?

I just looked up "Mentally Unbalanced" in the dictionary, that his guy's picture was right next to the definition.

I'm willing to bet that this guy's lawyers will shoot for temporary insanity. I hope that he just gets to spend a lot of time in Sing Sing.

Doctor Suspected in Town House Collapse Dies

The doctor suspected of blowing up an Upper East Side townhouse that once stood at the center of a bitter, drawn-out divorce battle has died from the injuries he suffered in the blast, a hospital spokeswoman said today.

Dr. Nicholas Bartha, 66, died at 11 p.m. on Saturday, according to Mary Halston, an administrator at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital, where the doctor had lingered in a medically induced coma since the explosion on July 10.

Dr. Bartha, an internist, lived and worked in the townhouse on East 62nd Street, which was reduced to a pile of bricks, plaster and shattered glass after the blast. He was alone in the house at the time of the explosion and was trapped under the rubble, with second- and third-degree burns over 35 to 40 percent of his body.

Here is a link to the entire story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/ny...ch4MibLywiykGA

I thought he died in the blast...guess I read the original article wrong.

So we have an on-site nurse at my office. She and I were talking the morning this happened (though not about the incident) that we had both worked form some crazy people. I said, "That's not comforting in your profession." She said, "People can be crazy, but still great doctors."

Fast forward to the next day. She walks up to me and says, "Remember I said I've worked for some crazy people? The doctor who blew up the apartment, yeah, I used to work for him!" :eek:

Sounds like a lot of doctors in their divorces. Doctors' wives have this thing.. this sense of entitlement that just blows my mind every time. She was probably unemployed, and simply had to be dressed in the newest designer clothing, etc.

Guess she killed her golden goose.

Actually, he killed himself. Your scenario doesn't seem to apply in this case. This guy was nuts. According to the NY Times:

"The divorce papers described a bizarre, markedly unhappy home life. Dr. Bartha put up “swastika-adorned articles” around the house, according to a court decision, “intentionally traumatizing” her because she is of Jewish descent and was born in “Nazi-occupied” Holland. Dr. Bartha became enraged when she took them down, according to the papers, which also said he ignored his wife as she was treated for breast cancer."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/ny...=1&oref=slogin

Okay, I concede that the guy was nuts.

Like blowing up a $5 million townhouse wasn't an indication, lol.

I think you're in law school now. You might be interested in reading the New York appellate court's 2005 decision in the Bartha divorce.

http://news.findlaw.com/nytimes/docs...e12705opn.html