Man severely burned in sidewalk explosion in Queens, NYC
A man suffered severe burns in a sidewalk explosion in Queens last week.
57 year old Barry West was heading to his T-mobile store to pay his cell phone bill when a Coned underground transformer exploded sending a ball of fire through the sidewalk grate. The man was engulfed in the flames before he was able to move to safety. He suffered second degree burns in multiple areas of his face and body and was immediately hospitalized. The man was still in the hospital a week after the accident. He told the NY Daily News that the explosion just came from nowhere. He felt he lost a lot of skin and was in so much pain that he could not work.
A similar explosion occurred at the same location exactly one day earlier and partially destroyed the front of a pizzeria next door (read more and see video of the accident in the NY Daily News).