Officials believe 2 bodies are missing men

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Two bodies were found Sunday amid rubble from the Manhattan apartment building collapse three days earlier, and authorities said everyone was accounted for since the apparent gas explosion that caused a massive fire and altogether leveled three buildings and damaged a fourth.

Authorities had been looking for signs of two missing men since Thursday’s explosion, in which 22 people were injured, including four critically. Officials suspect someone may have improperly tapped a gas line serving one of the buildings.

During their search, authorities said they believed the missing men had been inside a ground-floor sushi restaurant at the time of the explosion: 26-year-old Moises Lucon, who worked at the restaurant, and 23-year-old Nicholas Figueroa, a bowling alley worker who had been there on a date.

“We continue to search although there are no other missing persons,” Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said after the two bodies were pulled from the wreckage Sunday afternoon. “So the feeling is everyone who had been reported missing has now been found.”

He said the families of the two men had been notified.

“We have removed over 1,000 cubic yards of debris, and we’re not finished yet so we will remain on the scene a few more days to accomplish that task,” Nigro said.

The names of the two dead were not immediately released; a medical examiner was to positively identify them. A spokesman for the Figueroa family confirmed to reporters at the city Medical Examiner’s office that Figueroa’s body was pulled from the wreckage.