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NEW YORK (AP) — A second body was discovered Monday in the rubble of an apartment building that exploded over the weekend.
No identification had been made, and it could take time to identify the body. But authorities have said 47-year-old Francesca Figueroa apparently was moving out of the second floor of the Brooklyn building during the blast Saturday. Her sister, Nicura Figueroa, said she was missing.
"She's disappeared. I don't know. Nobody's found my sister," Nicura Figueroa told the Daily News.
Authorities say the blast happened after a stove was removed from a gas line that may not have been properly disconnected. Nicura Figueroa said her sister was cleaning out her apartment because her landlord pressured her to move, though it was unclear why.
"They wanted her to get out," she said.
A family friend, Frankie Diaz, described her as a "hard worker."
"She's had several businesses," Diaz told WABC-TV. "She's always working, making money for her kids."
Messages left at a phone number believed to belong to the landlord were not returned.
Firefighters received a call Saturday afternoon reporting an explosion at a building in the Borough Park neighborhood, fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. When emergency crews arrived, they found the front of the three-story building blown into the street. The fire commissioner said no one had reported smelling gas in the area.
Tenant Ligia Puello, a native of the Dominican Republic, died in the explosion. She lived in a third-floor apartment with her daughter, who was away at the time.
Her body was discovered in a stairwell near the second floor, close to the apartment where the explosion started, officials said.
Three people walking by the building were hit by debris. Ten firefighters had minor injuries.
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