Man on Sushi Park Date Reported Missing; Pommes Frites Hopes to Return

This morning, as firefighters still work to suppress the fire from yesterday's tragic building explosion in the East Village, a few new details and updates are emerging from those affected.

As the Times is now reporting, 19 people in all were injured, four of them critically. Two people are reportedly still missing, one of whom is 23-year-old Nicholas Figueroa, an employee of Bowlmor Lanes at Chelsea Piers, who was on a date at Sushi Park when the explosion in the building occurred. As the Daily News reports, his date is safe in Bellevue with only a broken nose, but she only remembers escaping the building before she lost consciousness.

Pommes Frites, which was also destroyed when its building collapsed, has now posted messages to both its website and Facebook page. On Facebook the owners write:

We want to thank everyone who has shared their concern for our well-being. Our staff and our customers are safe. However, our main concern is for those who were injured. This is a terrible tragedy, and our hearts go out to them and their families.

Due to the severe damage to our building, we are closed for the foreseeable future. We hope to re-open someday soon and will keep you updated when we have news to share.

Meanwhile, East Village old-timer B&H Dairy appears to have made it out okay, though it wasn't far from the blast. Late last night the owners posted to Facebook: "Dear Costumer what happend today was terable the B&H surrvive and everythink ok we gonna need All the great costumer to be with us in this hard time to stay on biznes"

In all, the fire spread to four buildings. 121 2nd Avenue, where the explosion originated, has collapsed, as has 123 2nd Avenue, where Pommes Frites was house. 119 Second Avenue, which housed the shuttered East Noodle & Izakaya is also in danger of collapse, with the top half of it now gone. 125 2nd Avenue was also damaged, but is still standing. The FDNY has been posting photos of the scene to Twitter, which give a sense of the damage here:

#FDNY operations in the #EastVillage continue into the night. pic.twitter.com/dKUbcma91b

— FDNY (@FDNY) March 27, 2015

Morning in the #EastVillage. #FDNY units continue to operate on-scene. pic.twitter.com/Uy7fO0d7zL

— FDNY (@FDNY) March 27, 2015

Update: A more recent image of the scene (below) shows that all three buildings (119, 121, and 123) have now collapsed. ABC 7 reports that the second missing person is a restaurant worker, but that person's name has not yet been released.