NEW YORK -- Sixteen firefighters were injured late last night when a gas explosion rocked a midtown restaurant.
Several were hurled out the door or shattered windows of the Mexican Express restaurant at the corner of Lexington Ave. and 34th St. when the blast struck the basement moments before midnight.
All the firefighters -- and two civilians who were also hurt -- were expected to survive.
The explosion erupted as firefighters searched for leftover pockets of fire in the five-story building after putting out a blaze there, officials at the scene said.
"There was a lot of explosion, a lot of debris flying . . . then everything just went black," said one firefighter.
A teen-ager who was a block away at the time said he saw "a big ball of fire."
"It came up and threw everything and everyone everywhere," said Richard Otero, 14.
Al DeMayo, who lives in an apartment above the restaurant, said that as he stood outside the building after he was evacuated, "all of a sudden, all the glass blew out."
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who visited the injured firefighters at three hospitals, said the firefighters were caught in a "fireball" triggered by the gas blast.
"Everybody was wearing bunker gear," the mayor said during an morning visit to Bellevue Hospital. "This would have been a very difficult situation if they hadn't."
The mayor fought for the special gear for all firefighters, at a cost of more than $1,000 per person.