“Shema Yisrael,” I started, accepting the inevitable as my strength gave way

As told by Yanky “Ziggy” Zagelbaum to Rochel Samet

"The building collapsed into tremendous heaps of rubble. Instinctively, I put my hand up to block it, but I was literally under it.”

This July will be 35 years since the explosion that gutted my business and nearly took my life.

It was a routine transaction for the plumbing supplies store I co-owned with my business partner on 18th Avenue in the heart of Boro Park: the weekly delivery of a tank of propane gas. And yet one Tuesday morning, July 21, 1987 — 24 Tammuz 5747 — it turned into anything but routine when, as the workers were lowering the tank into the basement of the store, it happened.

Somehow, some way — to this day, we don’t know exactly — the tank broke open and fell down the stairs. Back in those days, propane tanks weren’t fitted with the safety features they have today, and if the tank opened, gas spewed out like air from a balloon. When the tank opened, the gas filled the basement. That shouldn’t have been a problem — except that we had a water tank down there.

Now this water tank was, for the most part, inactive, used for just a sink or two that provided the store with hot water. It wasn’t even a lot of hot water — there were no tubs, showers, or bathrooms, just a couple of faucets — but when the gas reached the tank’s pilot light, the whole building turned into a huge missile, a tremendous bomb ready to explode.

I was standing in front of the building at 5005 18th Avenue, and I witnessed the entire incident: the workers lugging the tank, the fall, the gas spewing out in a thick white cloud as it was released into the basement. Hardly anyone saw it happen, and those of us there didn’t think anything of it — the tank would empty, the gas would dissipate, and that would be it.