Lower floors of downtown skyscraper explode: 7 people injured, two missing | News, Sports, Jobs

Youngstown firefighters can be seen sifting through the rubble Tuesday afternoon following an explosion at the Realty Tower building on the corner of Market and East Federal streets downtown. The cause is still under investigation, but is believed to have been caused by a gas leak, Youngstown Fire Chief Barry Finely said. (Staff photos/Ed Runyan)

YOUNGSTOWN — A massive explosion at the Realty Towers building at the corner of Market and East Federal Streets downtown injured seven people, with two others missing, and called into question the integrity of structural of the building, city officials said Tuesday.

“For the moment, there are no deaths” Youngstown Fire Chief Barry Finley said, but a man and woman have not been found. He believes one of them is a Chase Bank employee. The first floor of the building houses a branch of Chase Bank.

Rumors swirled throughout the day that a natural gas explosion caused the 2:45 p.m. blast that could be felt in other buildings downtown. But Finley told a crowd of media on the steps of the Mahoning County Courthouse around 6:30 p.m. that he didn't yet know what caused the explosion.

“We know Dominion (Energy) is here to check their lines,” he said of the natural gas company. “We have no idea what caused the explosion. We know there was an explosion and it caused a lot of damage to the bottom of the building.

He said Domination “He's doing an assessment of all his equipment, but right now all I know for sure is that there was an explosion.”

Charles Shasho, Youngstown's deputy public works director, said he can see facade beams that may have lost structural integrity, but that will require the building owners to hire engineers to check that thoroughly to know the severity of damage. building.

Finley said when firefighters arrived, they “I went into the building and got everyone out that they could. (Emergency Medical Services) stood there, and anyone injured or injured was taken to the hospital by EMS, and my firefighters went floor by floor, room by room, elevator by elevator, space by space, clearing that building to make sure that no there was anyone else in the building and no one else was injured.

People inside the Realty Towers building and the neighboring International Towers building were evacuated, but residents of International Towers were allowed back into the building around 6:30 p.m.

Robin Lees, director of the Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency, was handling the evacuation portion of the accident. The American Red Cross provided water and snacks to residents of International Towers, with the help of a few volunteers who live in the building that houses a large number of people with disabilities.

As for the Realty Towers, no one is going back inside the 13-story building yet, Finley said. The building includes condominiums and apartments on the upper floors.

Shortly after the explosion, Jeff Magada, executive director of Flying HIGH Inc., a nonprofit organization, said he got up from his office in a skyscraper across the street from the Realty Towers and that he had seen a cloud of dust rising.

Surveillance video across East Federal Street from the Realty Towers, 47 Federal Plaza Central, showed a powerful explosion that threw objects into the street.

But he also blew out the windows of the building across Federal Street, Magada said.

He and a man trained in emergency services went to the intersection where the explosion occurred and were going to head toward the building to help, but first responders arrived at that point, Magada said .

Magada said he heard a hissing sound coming from the building and smelled natural gas.

He could see firefighters guiding a man out of the building who was looking for a way out and another person who appeared to have gone into the basement of the building.

He saw a huge piece of concrete lifted onto the sidewalk on East Federal Street, next to the building.

The entire first floor, on both the Federal Plaza side and the East Federal side, suffered extraordinary damage, with the worst apparently near the northeast corner of the building, where the concrete heaved.

Firefighters focused much of their attention on that area in the minutes after arriving, removing two people from the first-floor destruction on stretchers.

Another man sat at the base of a monument in Federal Plaza, in front of the exploded building, with blood and dust on his face and people stopping to offer him water.

BUILDING HISTORY

Chase moved in May 2021 to Realty Tower as it reduced its downtown presence.

Prior to the move, Chase had for several years been at 6 W. Federal St., then known as the Chase Building, on three floors, occupying 13,523 square feet.

The Realty location measures 3,550 square feet and was home to the Starting Line Hair Salon for five years.

Huntington Bank reduced its footprint in downtown Youngstown shortly after Chase's decision.

The 104-year-old Realty Tower was the first downtown building to offer high-end apartments, opening in 2009. The building has 23 apartments.

Management Parking LLC, a sister company of Frangos Group, which developed the building, sold the property in June 2018 for $2 million to Yo Properties 47 LLC.

Yo Properties has several downtown locations on Market, North Hazel, West Commerce, East Federal and East Boardman streets. They were all purchased within the last six years.

Frangos purchased her first property in Youngstown in 1998. By the early 2000s, she was considered the largest landlord in downtown.

Since then, the company has sold a dozen downtown buildings, including the Stambaugh Building, Erie Terminal Place, the Wick Building and the former Chase Building.