The corner of 23rd Street and Seventh Avenue looks bad enough because of the longstanding construction site that was to be the Minerva Building, but the burned carcass of a what might have been a Hyundai Rav 4 has been added to the mix. The car went up on Friday night and, of course, the action video is below. This was the aftermath yesterday afternoon. Here’s a description from Aaron Brashear of Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights, who we normally hear from in the context of development-related issues in the neighborhood:

Last night, Friday 02.15.08 around 8pm. We’re inside making dinner and *POP*, *POP*, *BOOM*! Out the front door, look down the street to see some teenage girls yelling “*Oh, sh*t, that’s our car*!” Look up the block, still dark, but smoky and *BOOM*!

The car, a SUV or Mini-Van (hard to tell now) burst into flames. Corner of 7th Ave and 23rd St. The FDNY and 72nd Pct. were here in record time. No one was hurt, though a resident of 320 23rd St’s car suffered some minor damage due to the explosion. Quite a fire…not being a purveyor of car fires myself.

A long time resident swore it was an “insurance job,” since the car went up so fast…I’ll let the police, fire dept. and the insurance companies figure that one out.