The 24-year-old man who died in a house explosion in Elizabeth was an extraordinarily hardworking young man who worked to help others and left behind a pregnant girlfriend whom he may have saved, his father says.
Police say 24-year-old Femi Brown lived on the second floor of the duplex that was leveled "like a pancake" in Wednesday's blast. There is no word on the cause of death.
Brown, his pregnant girlfriend and his family lived on the top floor of the home.
"Everything in his life is about working, you know, social service, to help people, to do all kinds of stuff," said his father, Isibor Brown, who lived with him, before breaking out into tears: "I don't know. I don't know,"
But he smiled as he warmly remembered his son as "beautiful, handsome, great child. He has a dream. He was very hardworking."
Brown said Femi's girlfriend is a few weeks pregnant with their first child and was seriously injured in the blast. Brown said his son may have saved his girlfriend when he landed in a way that covered her head.
"He work so hard," Brown said. "He goes to work, he goes to school. For such a young, vibrant child to just -- something that is not of his own fault."
Brown said he smelled gas when he came home Tuesday, detecting it as soon as he opened the door at the stairs. He now blames himself and says he should have reported it right away.
"I'm so upset," he said. "I should have done that because I know that is what you have to do."
City spokeswoman Kelly Vence on Thursday says officials have not yet determined what triggered the explosion. Electricity had been cut off to tenants on the middle floor, and Mayor Chris Bollwage said the garage had been illegally converted into an apartment, and while gas is believed to be responsible for the blast, it's still not clear how.
Multiple sources told NBC 4 New York the gas company was at the home days earlier and was due back to turn the gas on to one of the units, but the company would not confirm that.
In all, 14 people were taken to hospitals. Four people remain in critical condition, including a mother, her 11-year-old son, her sister and another 12-year-old child.
Meanwhile, cleanup continued at the site Thursday as residents of the three homes could only look on in despair.
"Jewelry, iPads, my whole life was in that house," said Shatyra Ramos. She said she knows she was lucky to live through the explosion but "it's really hard to come back and see it gone."
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Maria Abreu said $8,000 in cash is at the bottom of the rubble, but no one is being allowed back.
"Access of any civilians would be detrimental to their own health and will not be allowed," said Bollwage.
