{"id":370034,"date":"2026-10-10T23:07:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T23:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/370034\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T23:07:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T23:07:32","slug":"unsafe-plumbing-job-triggered-explosion-at-queens-elementary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/370034\/","title":{"rendered":"Unsafe Plumbing Job Triggered Explosion at Queens Elementary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>PS 41 Crocheron in Bayside, Queens. Photo by insideschools.org.<\/p>\n

An explosion at a Queens elementary school has led the School Construction Authority to conduct a citywide safety review of nearly 700 active construction sites, officials say.<\/p>\n

Three firefighters and two workers suffered non-life threatening injuries in the Sept. 22 blast at P.S. 41 Crocheron in Bayside, QNS reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

The SCA, which has a safety division, would not say what caused the explosion or provide a report on the incident involving agency contractors.<\/p>\n

But an FDNY insider told me plumbers renovating a restroom at the school apparently left a leaking tank of acetylene \u2014 a highly combustible chemical compound used in a torch to solder pipes \u2014 inside a storage box. A fire alarm sounded at 5:49 p.m.<\/p>\n

When firefighters tried to force open the box, it exploded.<\/p>\n

The three firefighters and two civilians were taken to a hospital and treated for minor injuries, officials said. The 448-student K-5 school opened the next day.<\/p>\n

The incident occurred under the watch of SCA\u2019s newly appointed president and CEO, Celeste A. Ramirez, appointed in June by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Ramirez has fired several top executives in an overhaul of the multi-billion dollar agency, I\u2019ve reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

The new SCA chief \u201cis committed to ensuring that all construction sites follow required safety protocols,\u201d spokeswoman Shoshana Khan said in a statement in response to my questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the September 22 incident, out of an abundance of caution, the SCA immediately halted work at the site and launched a citywide review of nearly 700 active construction projects, with 584 reviews completed to date.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khan added that site safety requirements at P.S. 41 were also strengthened to include updated fire protection plans and end-of-shift checklists for tanks on construction sites.<\/p>\n

Work at P.S. 41 remains partially suspended pending the SCA review, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe deeply regret the injuries resulting from this incident and are taking every necessary step to ensure the safety and security of our worksites before construction activities fully resume.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PS 41 Crocheron in Bayside, Queens. Photo by insideschools.org. An explosion at a Queens elementary school has led…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-370034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370034","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=370034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}