General Contractor Among 5 Indicted for NYC Gas Explosion Last Year

The building owners, master plumber, general contractor and a worker were all indicted and arrested on manslaughter, negligent homicide and other charges related to a gas explosion last year that killed two people in the Sushi Park restaurant and level three neighboring buildings.

Three Buildings Explode, 25 Injured After Construction Workers Hit Gas Line in NY

Eight months before the explosion, a worker allegedly used yellow flexible hosing to provide gas to the building from the restaurants gas meter, which was an unsafe hookup. As a workaround, workers installed a complex series of pipes and vales to provide a makeshift gas delivery system into one of the buildings via an uncapped gas meter in the basement of the adjacent building.

Surveillance video just prior to the explosion shows general contractor Dilber Kukic and the building owner's son Michael Hrynenko entering and then running out of the basement before warning anyone, officials say.

(more on the arrests in the gas explosion case...)