Okla-homey
7/11/2006, 05:57 AM
Remember the building that assploded in NYC yesterday? The rest of the story...I wonder if he remembered to cancel the insurance?
E-Mail: 'I Will Leave The House Only If I Am Dead'
NEW YORK -- The signs were ominous that Dr. Nicholas Bartha had no intention of selling his Upper East Side townhouse to settle a nasty divorce.
The ex-wife claimed in court papers that he would "die in my house." Then came the dark e-mail from Bartha himself Monday morning.
"When you read this ... your life will change forever. You deserve it. You will be transformed from gold digger to ash and rubbish digger. You always wanted me to sell the house. I always told you I will leave the house only if I am dead."
Hours later, a gas explosion ripped through the house, setting off a raging fire and turning the building into a pile of bricks, broken glass and splintered wood. At least 15 people were injured, including five civilians and 10 firefighters.
Bartha was critically injured. Police were investigating the explosion as a crime but had not interviewed the doctor because of his injuries, department spokesman Paul Browne said. Authorities are looking into whether he caused the explosion as part of a suicide attempt.
Bartha, 66, was pulled from the rubble after talking with authorities from his phone while buried in the wreckage, fire commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said. One passer-by suffered severe injuries; the remaining injuries were minor.
"This could have been an even worse disaster than it already is," Scoppetta said.
The explosion and fire created a horrific scene on the Upper East Side. Heavy black smoke rose high above the narrow building on 62nd Street between Park and Madison Avenues -- just a few blocks from Central Park. Debris was strewn everywhere. Four of the injured were pedestrians -- some of them found on the street covered in blood.
"In a few seconds, finished," said Thad Milonas, 57, who was running a coffee cart across from the building and came to the aid of two bloodied women. "The whole building collapsed."
Bartha had recently lost a $4 million judgment in the divorce case, and court records paint the picture of a nasty dispute that dragged on for years. In a petition filed this year by Cordula Bartha, she hinted at looming troubles and asked that deputies remove Nicholas Bartha from the building. "I have no doubt that (Nicholas Bartha) will ensconce himself in the marital residence and refuse to leave it after the auction is held."
The building was worth nearly $5 million based on a 2004 assessment, and was to be sold at auction to pay the judgment against Bartha.
A message seeking comment from the lawyer for Nicholas Bartha was not returned. Attorneys for 64-year-old Cordula Bartha issued a statement: "Ms. Bartha cannot at this time withstand the additional burden of the media microscope on this personal tragedy. Ms. Bartha and her family are deeply saddened and terribly upset by today's occurrence."
The fire was reported at 8:40 a.m., and hundreds of firefighters rushed to the scene.
Rabbi Yaakov Kermaier, 36, a resident in a building next door, said he was outside when he heard "a deafening boom. I saw the whole building explode in front of me."
"Everybody started running, nobody knew what was coming next," said Kermaier, whose nanny and newborn escaped from their apartment unharmed.
Police Lt. Eugene Whyte said the building included two doctor's offices, and Scoppetta said Bartha was apparently the only person who lived there. Whyte said a nurse who was supposed to open one of the doctors' offices arrived late, narrowly missing the explosion. The other doctor's office was run by Dr. Paul Mantia.
Whyte said the medical offices opened at 9 a.m., so no patients were in the building.
TV host Larry King, who had been in his hotel room nearby, described the explosion to CNN as sounding like a bomb and feeling like an earthquake. "I've never heard a sound like that," King said.
Sherry Miller, who lives on the seventh floor of a neighboring building, ran out of her home in her pink bathrobe after the blast. Miller said she "saw coming down in front of my window a big piece of plaster. Then it kept tumbling and tumbling. And what I thought -- I thought it was a bomb. The flames came in a second."
Streets around the area were closed off to traffic as ambulances and rescue units responded, and the chaos snarled traffic. Dozens of onlookers stood behind police tape, snapping pictures and watching the smoke as it engulfed the Manhattan sky.
The building is located in an upscale neighborhood where the 2000 Census said the median price of a home was $1 million.
The neighborhood is dotted with notable architecture, and was once synonymous with high-society types like J.P. Morgan and William and Cornelius Vanderbilt. The Colony Club, New York's earliest social club organized by women, is right down the street. The destroyed building is next door to the Links Club, which suffered some damage in the collapse.
E-Mail: 'I Will Leave The House Only If I Am Dead'
NEW YORK -- The signs were ominous that Dr. Nicholas Bartha had no intention of selling his Upper East Side townhouse to settle a nasty divorce.
The ex-wife claimed in court papers that he would "die in my house." Then came the dark e-mail from Bartha himself Monday morning.
"When you read this ... your life will change forever. You deserve it. You will be transformed from gold digger to ash and rubbish digger. You always wanted me to sell the house. I always told you I will leave the house only if I am dead."
Hours later, a gas explosion ripped through the house, setting off a raging fire and turning the building into a pile of bricks, broken glass and splintered wood. At least 15 people were injured, including five civilians and 10 firefighters.
Bartha was critically injured. Police were investigating the explosion as a crime but had not interviewed the doctor because of his injuries, department spokesman Paul Browne said. Authorities are looking into whether he caused the explosion as part of a suicide attempt.
Bartha, 66, was pulled from the rubble after talking with authorities from his phone while buried in the wreckage, fire commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said. One passer-by suffered severe injuries; the remaining injuries were minor.
"This could have been an even worse disaster than it already is," Scoppetta said.
The explosion and fire created a horrific scene on the Upper East Side. Heavy black smoke rose high above the narrow building on 62nd Street between Park and Madison Avenues -- just a few blocks from Central Park. Debris was strewn everywhere. Four of the injured were pedestrians -- some of them found on the street covered in blood.
"In a few seconds, finished," said Thad Milonas, 57, who was running a coffee cart across from the building and came to the aid of two bloodied women. "The whole building collapsed."
Bartha had recently lost a $4 million judgment in the divorce case, and court records paint the picture of a nasty dispute that dragged on for years. In a petition filed this year by Cordula Bartha, she hinted at looming troubles and asked that deputies remove Nicholas Bartha from the building. "I have no doubt that (Nicholas Bartha) will ensconce himself in the marital residence and refuse to leave it after the auction is held."
The building was worth nearly $5 million based on a 2004 assessment, and was to be sold at auction to pay the judgment against Bartha.
A message seeking comment from the lawyer for Nicholas Bartha was not returned. Attorneys for 64-year-old Cordula Bartha issued a statement: "Ms. Bartha cannot at this time withstand the additional burden of the media microscope on this personal tragedy. Ms. Bartha and her family are deeply saddened and terribly upset by today's occurrence."
The fire was reported at 8:40 a.m., and hundreds of firefighters rushed to the scene.
Rabbi Yaakov Kermaier, 36, a resident in a building next door, said he was outside when he heard "a deafening boom. I saw the whole building explode in front of me."
"Everybody started running, nobody knew what was coming next," said Kermaier, whose nanny and newborn escaped from their apartment unharmed.
Police Lt. Eugene Whyte said the building included two doctor's offices, and Scoppetta said Bartha was apparently the only person who lived there. Whyte said a nurse who was supposed to open one of the doctors' offices arrived late, narrowly missing the explosion. The other doctor's office was run by Dr. Paul Mantia.
Whyte said the medical offices opened at 9 a.m., so no patients were in the building.
TV host Larry King, who had been in his hotel room nearby, described the explosion to CNN as sounding like a bomb and feeling like an earthquake. "I've never heard a sound like that," King said.
Sherry Miller, who lives on the seventh floor of a neighboring building, ran out of her home in her pink bathrobe after the blast. Miller said she "saw coming down in front of my window a big piece of plaster. Then it kept tumbling and tumbling. And what I thought -- I thought it was a bomb. The flames came in a second."
Streets around the area were closed off to traffic as ambulances and rescue units responded, and the chaos snarled traffic. Dozens of onlookers stood behind police tape, snapping pictures and watching the smoke as it engulfed the Manhattan sky.
The building is located in an upscale neighborhood where the 2000 Census said the median price of a home was $1 million.
The neighborhood is dotted with notable architecture, and was once synonymous with high-society types like J.P. Morgan and William and Cornelius Vanderbilt. The Colony Club, New York's earliest social club organized by women, is right down the street. The destroyed building is next door to the Links Club, which suffered some damage in the collapse.