By Luis Perez
Newsday (New York)
Copyright 2006 Newsday, Inc.
Police and fire investigators probing the spectacular explosion of a Manhattan townhouse that injured 15 people have determined that it was caused by the deliberate installation of a valve that allowed natural gas to seep from the landmark building’s utility pipes.
“Nobody does something like this unless they want to do something bad,” Chief Fire Marshal Louis Garcia said in explaining the “tampering” to reporters.
The findings by the fire marshal and the police department’s arson and explosions squad came as the building’s owner, Nicholas Bartha, 66, remained hospitalized in “severely critical condition” with burns to 70 percent of his body yesterday, officials said.
An hour before the blast, at 8:40 a.m. Monday, police officials said Bartha e-mailed a bizarre 15-page letter to his attorney and others in which he wrote that his ex-wife, Cordula Bartha, 64, would transform “from gold digger to ash and rubble digger. “
Law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said Bartha, a doctor specializing in internal medicine, tried to kill himself using gas at least twice in the past and may have been trying to do so again.
Cordula Bartha’s lawyer, Polly Passonneau, said in an e-mailed statement that her client was no “gold digger. " Cordula Bartha works for the Netherlands consulate.
“He unfortunately did not want to give her one penny, so he kept fighting,” Passonneau wrote. “He is living with the consequences of his own behavior. “
Nicholas Bartha’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
As the fire marshal spoke to reporters, excavation crews dug through the mountain of rubble that was once 34 E. 62nd St., a building that Bartha’s real estate agent, Mark Baum, valued at $6.25 million.
Late Monday night, investigators had dug far enough beneath the rubble to find the building’s gas meter. Less than a foot away from it was brass pipe fitted with a release valve, Garcia said. At the end of the pipe, a corrugated plastic tube commonly used for pool filters extended beneath the rubble.
Investigators were trying to determine where the tube ended, and if it was connected to any appliances, Garcia said. But the valve would have released enough gas to blow up the building on its own, he said.
“Anything could ignite that, anything,” Garcia said. “We’re saying it’s intentional.”
It was unclear if the investigation had included the work of licensed contractors who, according to Con Edison, had corrected a gas leak in Bartha’s building two days before the blast.
Garcia said the pipe could have been installed by anyone with a wrench and a basic knowledge of plumbing. Police officials said they could not comment on evidence in the investigation.
The doctor, rescued from beneath 20 feet of rubble by firefighters who heard his cries, has not been formally named a suspect, said Paul Browne, a Police Department spokesman. Still, police are actively investigating the incident as a crime, he said, and are waiting to speak to Bartha at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
One law enforcement official said possible charges include reckless endangerment and assault.
Yesterday, only one of five innocent passersby injured in the explosion, which sent a hail of bricks, wood and glass shards into the street, remained hospitalized.
Jennifer Panicali, 22, who was walking to her summer Parks Department job in Central Park when she was hit by the debris, was in stable condition at Weill Cornell Center after surgery yesterday, her family said.
Residents of two adjoining buildings that were shaken and damaged in the blast were still unable to go home, and some went to nearby hotels. Bartha is the only resident of his four-story building, which housed his and other doctors’ offices.
Kristy Davis and staff writers Cara Tabachnick and Andrew Strickler contributed to this story.