By Kerry Burke, Colin Mixson
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — An explosion inside a Brooklyn house left three people clinging to life late Thursday, firefighters said.
A gas leak caused an explosion in the basement of the E. 37th St. home near Farragut Road in East Flatbush, blowing out the back of the house around 8:30 p.m., according to an FDNY source.
The explosion left three people in critical condition, including two who were taken to Staten Island University Hospital and a third who was taken to Kings County Hospital, firefighters said.
A fourth person suffered non-life-threatening injuries, firefighters said.
A neighbor was inside his home down the block when a massive boom shook his house as the nearby property exploded.
“It sounded like a bomb,” said the man, who declined to share his name. “You could hear the explosion from blocks away. My house was shaking.”
Another neighbor looked on in horror as two men emerged from the wreckage of the destroyed house.
“Two victims came out of the house. The skin was melting off their bodies,” said Milredy Joseph, who lives down the block. “They were standing across the street. It was horrible.”
The front-facing windows were shattered beneath collapsed metal awnings on the front of the house, while the rear yard was littered with rubble and debris in the wake of the blowout.
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