NYPD officers rescue children after Queens house explodes during domestic call

Seven NYPD officers and a sergeant are recovering after a Queens house exploded as they moved in on a domestic violence call, then rushed back into the wreckage to pull children and other occupants to safety.

Police said the call came in at 2:42 a.m. Thursday, April 30, in South Ozone Park, when a woman reported a relative who was intoxicated, armed with a knife and associated with a smell of gas. Officers arrived roughly 16 minutes later and found a scene that had already turned volatile.

According to Assistant Chief Christopher McIntosh, the suspect was a 50-year-old man who arrived intoxicated, carried a knife and had two garbage bags filled with canisters containing an unknown substance. Police said he forced his way into a basement apartment in a three-family home where his wife, daughter and two grandchildren lived. The daughter and the two grandchildren fled before officers reached the house.

Officers used a key provided by a victim outside the home and were trying to enter when the front of the house exploded, blasting them backward and triggering a major fire. The home collapsed, and neighboring houses were damaged as flames spread through the block. Police later said the suspect was unaccounted for, and a body was found in the rubble pending identification.

Body-camera video showed the officers recovering quickly, then moving back toward the broken structure to help multiple civilians, including crying children, get out. Jessica Tisch called the officers heroic and said they were focused on getting the children out and protecting innocent lives. McIntosh said the department got very lucky and that the outcome could have been much different.

Eight officers were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, including burns and a head laceration, and all were expected to be OK and later released. Several civilians were also transported with minor injuries as the five-alarm fire drew emergency crews to a block where a domestic dispute became a structural and fire emergency in seconds.