A plumbing-company employee somehow thought it was a good idea to check a gas leak by lighting a match — setting off the massive explosion at a high-school building, officials said Friday.
Workers from the Queens firm were at the building — housing eight small high schools in Manhattan’s Marble Hill neighborhood — to work on a science lab on the sixth floor Thursday night.
Luigi Barillaro, 36, who lit the match, was in critical condition at Jacobi Medical Center with burns covering 90 percent of his body, police sources said. Two other workers at the scene were at Jacobi with less serious injuries.
“I do not believe this is a standard procedure,” Mayor de Blasio said in a massive understatement. “I do believe this was a mistake and obviously a very costly one for the workers involved.”
The explosion caused a thunderous blast that blew out windows and walls of the building, the former John F. Kennedy HS, which now houses the smaller schools serving 3,000 students.
Barillaro, of Howard Beach, is the father of two young kids.
Charles Marullo, 53, and James Intriago, 38, were also burned.
“He’s coherent, but he’s burnt a lot,” said Barillaro’s grandmother-in-law, Lenore Gurino.
All of the workers were from Ozone Park’s Mar-Sal Plumbing & Heating, which was sub-contracting for a firm called Positive Electrical Associates.
De Blasio said the building will not open in time for the start of the school year on Sept. 9. Its students will be sent to other schools.
The science lab has been under construction since July 2014 and was slated to be finished in 2016.
Students couldn’t believe the cause of the explosion.
“That’s ridiculous!” said Victor Ortiz, 15, an incoming Marble Hill HS junior. “I guess he didn’t watch that many cartoons to know if you light a match around gas, it goes boom.”
