1 Dead After Explosion on Boat Near Manhattan Sewage Plant

New York|1 Dead After Explosion on Boat Near Manhattan Sewage Plant

A worker at a sewage treatment facility died on Saturday after an explosion onboard a boat in the Hudson River near Upper Manhattan, the Fire Department said.

The worker was an employee at the North River Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility, a sewage treatment plant just off the Henry Hudson Parkway near 138th Street. He and two other plant employees were transporting raw sewage on the boat at around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday when a compartment holding some of the waste exploded, David Simms, a deputy assistant chief with the Fire Department, said at a news conference on Saturday.

The force of the explosion pushed one of the workers into the water, pinning him between the vessel and the pier and ultimately killing him, Chief Simms said. Another employee was taken to a nearby hospital, while the third refused medical treatment at the scene.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear on Saturday.

In addition to the death, the explosion left raw sewage on the deck of the boat, Chief Simms said. But a spokesman for the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the plant, said that operations were not affected and that there did not appear to be any environmental damage.

On Saturday afternoon, workers from New York City Emergency Management, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Fire Department’s hazmat team were on the scene “managing operations and ensuring public safety,” the emergency management agency said. Police officers also responded after receiving a 911 call about a person in the water.

The deadly explosion comes just one week after a Mexican Navy ship crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge, killing two crew members and injuring almost two dozen more.

The North River facility, one of 14 wastewater treatment plants in the city, serves hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers on the West Side of Manhattan. In 2011, a fire severely damaged the plant and sent gallons of untreated waste into the Hudson and Harlem Rivers.

The spokesman from the Department of Environmental Protection said the employee who died had served 33 years with the agency. Rohit T. Aggarwala, the department’s commissioner, said in a statement that his team was grieving.

“He was a valued and experienced member of the Bureau of Wastewater Treatment, and his decades of service reflect his commitment to D.E.P.’s mission,” Mr. Aggarwala said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Sharla Steinman contributed reporting.