{"id":118762,"date":"2026-02-01T01:26:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T01:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/118762\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T01:26:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T01:26:35","slug":"bronx-residents-demand-accountability-after-deadly-gas-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/118762\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx residents demand accountability after deadly gas explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE BRONX, N.Y. (PIX11) \u2014 Boston Secor Houses residents in Eastchester and Dare to Struggle, activists rallied Saturday at 2175 Reeds Mill Lane, demanding accountability from Wavecrest Management and NYCHA<\/a> over a deadly Jan. 24 gas explosion that exposed public housing safety failures.<\/p>\n

Ramona Brown, a 17-year resident working remotely from her bedroom, described the moment, \u201cIt was an explosion, and it was like boom, like a sonic boom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bronx building gas explosion residents blame management, reps deny claims <\/a><\/p>\n

The shockwave struck just after midnight at 3475 Bivona St., where firefighters had responded to a gas odor report only moments before the buildup ignited fires across 10 apartments on the 15th and 16th floors.<\/p>\n

Firefighters told Brown to flee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked the fire department if they felt it was safe for me to stay and they said no,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

She joined over 100 families displaced into the cold; Ronald McCallister<\/a> was pronounced dead at the scene, while others suffered injuries.<\/p>\n

Management sent residents a notice claiming the explosion stemmed from a removed stove.<\/p>\n

Samuel Calderon was arrested days later, facing charges including murder, manslaughter, assault, burglary, and more.<\/p>\n

Brown remains uncertain.<\/p>\n

Make PIX11 your preferred news source on Google: Here\u2019s how <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where I\u2019m going after this right now, I\u2019m displaced from my home. It was a traumatic experience, and all of the stories are not adding up,\u201d she added, faulting Wavecrest and NYCHA amid issues like heating, water and renovations. \u201cWe had an explosion, on top of renovations, and they\u2019re doing all this drilling\u2026 a lot of trauma to the building, it\u2019s unsafe for me to reside in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wavecrest Management stated: \u201cThere have been no complaints or violations on record related to gas leaks for the past three years. ConEd inspected and cleared the building following last weekend\u2019s incident, finding no active gas leak. We take the safety of our residents very seriously. There are no open heat complaints at this time, and heat is fully operational at the site.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thea of Dare to Struggle, a grassroots group battling NYCHA failures and evictions, backed residents: \u201cThey don\u2019t do any repairs. She said, \u201cThis is part of a larger plan of NYCHA to privatize these housing projects to push people out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown vows not to go back, \u201cI\u2019m not going back there any longer, psychologically I just can\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Red Cross registered 121 households for emergency assistance, including financial and recovery support; residents needing lodging should contact building management.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE BRONX, N.Y. (PIX11) \u2014 Boston Secor Houses residents in Eastchester and Dare to Struggle, activists rallied Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,49845,9,24,63,305,52223,18046,52224,129,131,130,13327],"class_list":["post-118762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-gas-explosion","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nycha","tag-ramona-brown","tag-residents","tag-safety-failures","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-wavecrest-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}