Howard Beach woman injured in house explosion

A woman was critically injured after a wall collapsed Wednesday afternoon in her Howard Beach home, authorities said.

Firefighters responded to the single-family house at 84th Street around 2:30 p.m. and found an entire wall of the home had collapsed and the house was on fire, the FDNY said. The blaze spread, engulfing the roof, but a team of 106 firefighters got it under control less than an hour later.

The home's unidentified resident was taken to Jamaica Hospital with burns and was listed in critical condition, the FDNY said.

Authorities had not immediately determined a cause of the blaze. Buildings Department records show the owners applied for work on the gas line.

The application was part of the city's Rapid Repairs program, which was created to help homeowners in Sandy-affected areas streamline renovations to their damaged homes.

A source familiar with the probe said the work was done in January. The Buildings Department said it had crews on the scene to investigate the structure and it will check records to determine what happened.

A spokeswoman for National Grid said the utility shut the gas to the house after the collapse, but left it on for the rest of the block