Streets Near Fatal East Village Explosion Should Be Co-Named For Victims, Advocates Say

EAST VILLAGE, NY — The family of a victim in the fatal East Village gas explosion is asking the city to co-name nearby streets after both victims, two years after the fatal fire upended the area.

Advocates, including the family of Nicholas Figueroa, have been asking community members to sign a petition in support of naming portions of Seventh Street and Second Avenue after Figueroa and Moises Locon, both of whom were killed in the fatal explosion.

"In memory of these young men, I ask that our community honor their lives and demonstrate to their families that their loss was also our loss and we share in their sorrow," the petition reads.

The transportation committee for Community Board 3, which includes the East Village, will hear proposals on Tuesday to co-name the streets. The petition is asking to rename Second Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Marks Place after Locon, and to co-name Seventh Street between Second and Third avenues after Figueroa.

Figueroa and Locon were killed in the 2015 blaze that injured a dozen other people and destroyed three buildings in the neighborhood. The explosion and subsequent fire started in the building at 121 Second Ave., where the building's owner had allegedly installed an illegal gas line. Prosecutors say that Maria Hrynenko has set up an illegal and shoddy gas delivery system and worked to by-pass proper inspection by authorities. In March 2015, a gas leak ignited the deadly and destructive fire.

Hrynenko, 56, and three others were charged with manslaughter in connection with the explosion. They are next scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.

"It's not going to bring him back — nothing is going to bring him back," Ana Lanza, Figueroa's mother, told DNA Info about her push to co-name the streets. "But at least this brings a little bit of comfort, that he's going to be remembered somewhere, somehow. That his life wasn't taken in vain. That he meant something."

Lead image via FDNY.