This Woman Lost Everything in the East Village Explosion

A day in the life of a resident who lost everything during the East Village explosion.

McKenzie Roese sees her collapsed apartment building up close for the first time. She lost all of her belongings during the seven-alarm East Village fire on March 26, 2015. (Benjamin Chasteen/Epoch Times

NEW YORK—Smoke filled McKenzie Roese’s lungs as she stepped out of the 6 train station on Astor Place. She was not sure why she left work to go back to her apartment; she knew her building was ablaze. But she felt she needed to be there with her home as it slowly shriveled away.

The police would not let her go near the site of the inferno. So Roese stood two streets away and watched. She stayed there for one hour, crying as the flames performed their menacing dance.

The police would not let her go near the site of the inferno.