Read our Privacy noticeResidents were forced to flee as a high-rise apartment building in New York’s Bronx borough partially collapsed following a suspected gas explosion. According to the New York Fire Department, a gas explosion caused an incinerator shaft attached to the building to collapse. Adams asked that pedestrians avoid the collapse site. A neighbor who had called the city to report seeing smoke near the building witnessed the explosion and subsequent collapse. the FDNY and the NYPD, the city’s Buildings Department and the Department of Environmental Protection responded to the scene.