New York explosion brings back fears of September 11

By Nada Weigelt Jul 19, 2007, 19:49 GMT

New York - Only a giant crater remained in the middle of 41st Street between sparkling skyscrapers and small shops in the heart of Manhattan on Thursday.

A day earlier, an explosion had sent steam and debris flying into the air and panicked commuters running during the height of rush hour, reminding New Yorkers of a terrible moment from their past.

'I immediately thought of 9/11. It was deja vu,' witness Gary Croake, 40, told journalists. 'It was the same sound as six years ago. I thought a building was going to come down.'

But the explosion of an aging steam pipe, near the traffic hub of Grand Central Station, was no terrorist attack and could not be compared with the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, in which more than 2,700 people died.

The accident left 30 people injured, and one woman died of a heart attack as she ran from the site. Two hours later, police and the fire department had brought the situation under control.

At the same time, the explosion showed how deeply the horrors of September 11, 2001, are burned into the memory of New Yorkers. The terrorist attacks are no longer discussed in day-to-day life, but on Wednesday the nightmare was just below the surface and beneath the smoke, dust, screams and sirens.

Before it became clear what had happened, people ran in panic holding cloths over their faces. A young women lost her flip-flops, an office worker left behind his briefcase in the chaos.

Eurydice Kelley, a 32-year-old lawyer who is nine months pregnant, was trapped in the lobby of a nearby building during the incident. Emergency medical personnel were only slowly able to make their way to her.

'I was in the south tower for 9/11,' she told the New York Times. 'And I feared the worst.'

The city's newspapers captured the underlying fear in their Thursday headlines. Headlines included 'Outbreak of fears' and 'An eruption and fears of worse.'

Mayor Michael Bloomberg knows that a moment like this could decide his image as a leader. Barely two hours after the explosion, he stood before a press conference.

'There is no reason whatsoever to believe that this has anything to do with terrorism or crime,' he said, but urged the 'biggest possible precaution' during the clean-up.

His comments reflected another fear that had surfaced after the accident. The city's more than 80-year-old pipes can set asbestos into the air during a break, though officials Thursday said no asbestos had been found in the air around the steam pipe explosion site.

New Yorkers also know this fear from the days after September 11, 2001, when thousands of recovery workers were exposed to poisonous dust released in the ruins of the twin towers. A new study on Wednesday said the number of exposed people could grow from 30,000 to 65,000.