Last week's horrific gas leak explosion in East Harlem left eight New Yorkers dead and required the help of hundreds of FDNY firefighters. The catastrophe was like "working on Ground Zero again," as one firefighter described it, "the smoke in your face, digging through the rubble for bodies." And now of course the whole disaster is resulting in major lawsuits against the city.
Jose Vargas, a 20-year-old high school student who attended West Side High School nearby the location of the explosion, has filed the first one, seeking $10 million in damages. "The city knew those lines were more than one hundred years old. Obviously you can't have lines that old in today's infrastructure," his attorney, Robert Vilensky, told the New York Daily News.
According to his filings with the comptroller's office, Vargas, a Harlem resident, was on a bus en route to the High School when the blast caused the bus glass to shatter. He was then reportedly thrown against the bus's interior, causing the suspected injuries. Immediately after the explosion, Vargas was taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center. Arguing that he needs physical therapy, Vargas is seeking compensation upwards of $10 million for "torn ligaments" and "torn blood vessels."
