coverage on the explosion in new york city. eric shawn, next. i'm eric shawn in new york with the very latest on what appears to be some sort of explosion that has we have been reporting tonight on the fox news channel. on 23rd street in the chelsea section of manhattan. at least 25 people have been injured. this supposed device, not yet confirmed it was an ied at all, in a dumpster, apparently went off earlier this morning, and injured 25 people. i want to make it very clear and responsible that there is no confirmation that this was, indeed, an ied of any sort, but certainly someone could come to some type of conclusion considering the history and record of bombs that we have had

in new york city, not for quite some time, in the '50s and '60s, bombing of the laguardia terminal in 1975 that killed 11 people at that time. this is something that we have not seen in the city of new york, basically, for decades. more recently, there have been a coup of individual-type bombing pacts, aimed at the recruiting center in times square of manhattan, someone on a bicycle throwing that device in. another one over on third avenue by the british consulate happened six or seven years ago. but this, of course, concern of possible terrorism in the wake of the pipe bomb that did go off, thankfully, early, in seaside heights earlier this morning. that at 9:30, just before a marine run and 5k that would benefit families of our marines went off. obviously, no one was injured, thankfully in seaside heights. that because that 5k was delayed. but you're looking at a google

map there of where this explosion occurred. and our brian llenas has been on the site at the scene right next to that area with the very latest. brian, what do you have right now? >> reporter: good evening, eric. what we know is about 8:30 p.m., from what we're understanding, there was report of an explosion here on 23 and 7th avenue. right now we're between 24th street and 23rd and 7th. the fdny tell us that there are in fact 25 injured. two of those happened to be civilians that were injured while they were on the street. as to whether or not where this came from, we do not know. we do not know whether this was any kind of explosive device. we only know that there was an explosion so loud that it shook many of the area buildings. people physically came out of their buildings, because it was so loud and so forceful that people on the blocks from where this explosion apparently happened felt it, to the point many of them came out to the

street to see what we are see right now. take a look at the scene. this explosion, the fdny said this happened at 23rd and 6th, which is the next avenue by. but we're still seeing fdny on the scene, many fdny fire trucks, and we've seen bomb dogs go by as well, searching the area, perhaps for any other devices or any explosive devices in the area. we do have a witness that we met, as soon as we got here on the scene. her name is solei. you were just with us. if you can just explain to the our viewers one more time what you saw. you had just gotten off the bus, and just explain to everybody back home what you witnessed? >> i just got off of the crosstown bus on 23rd street, on 7th avenue. and i went into a convenience store to get a magazine. i came outside and i heard boom.

and it was so huge and it didn't sound -- didn't seem normal. and i saw a big cloud of smoke. i don't know where it was coming from. it looked like it was in the middle of the street. and it was shaking. it was shaking my body. it was shaking -- it was very forceful. and it didn't seem like it was going to stop. i knew that it was something -- something was very wrong. people started to running from 23rd street around the corner and i ran with them. and we all came over here and then i went to whole foods, because i felt safe there. and then all, you know, the police cars and the sirens, and they were filling up that block. they were going down the block and this is what we have now. but i had just gotten off the bus, went into the store for two minutes, not even a minute, really, so quickly, and came right now and it happened. >> and you said the explosion, in terms of sound, it was

something you had never really heard before. >> it sounded like being at the fireworks, but they're kind of cheerful. this was like a -- and it was a big explosion. like i hear, if i'm watching a news show and there's -- it seemed like a war to me. it really sounded horrible. it was really scary. >> and you saw black smoke. you came out of the convenience store here on the corner of 23rd and 7th. you saw the smoke down towards 6th avenue and 23rd. >> but i saw it very clearly, it was like a big cloud of black smoke. >> and ibased on what you saw, you did not see this explosion come out of a building. from your perspective, it was in the middle of the street. >> it didn't seem like there was a building. it just seemed like -- it was just like in the middle of the street, that's what it seemed like to me. >> terms of the people that were here, was it a packed a night on a saturday night that tuyou wou

see in chelsea or any given night? >> it was pretty crowded in the streets tonight, a beautiful night. i had come from downtown. but the people that started running up 23rd, that's why i ran. i was looking to see what was going on, to stay there, after the explosion. and i got scared, because everybody started running, you know? and people were panicking. and people came out from 24th street from their apartments and they're all asking, do you know what went on? do you know what went on? and there were people at their jobs and they said their whole building shook. so that's what happened. >> the explosion was so loud that we actually had somebody that came up to us that put -- that is actually with the national guard. they were inside their apartment building on 24th street and they told me, once they heard the explosion, they put on the uniform and came out here on their own accord to tell me how they could help. the explosion was so loud, he initially thought that perhaps it was scaffolding, but then he realized it was much louder than that. and that's what you see with some of those national guard

uniform wearers here. it seems to me, based on what this person told me, that they just happen to be in the area for training, and as soon as they heard, they happened to be in yump already. some of the people you may be seeing in the background and decided to come out here. it's not like they were called out here. they were happy to be in the area for but again, 25 injured, 2 civilians on the street. you heard that account. she was in a convenience store, loud enough that last, she had told me, the sound it seemed like for 15 seconds. again, but we have no indication of where this came from, what is going on yet. we still do not know, but given what happened earlier today, with the seaside park pipe bomb that was found in that garbage can, obviously, alert was already high in the area. the joint terrorism task force was in that area already. so we'll see. we're waiting on as much information as we can. traffic has been stopped. people are on the streets watching in the middle of the chelsea neighborhood here, where about 20 blocks south of times

square. we're about nine, ten blocks away from penn station. a major transportation hub area here. this is a beautiful saturday night. but right now, the crews here are just -- looks like they're on standby. but again, an explosion on 23rd and 6th, 25 injured. we'll bring you more adds we get it. >> let me make one more point. usually sensitive sights such as the united nations, the empire state building, the world trade center. the radical islamic terrorists went after the world trade center twice. and first terrorist attack in the united states occurred in 1990, an assassination of an extremist rabbi who was shot by someone who turned o out to be part of the cell that then went on to bomb the world trade center three years later. we of course at this early point have no indication of any of that. i raise this, because are there any sense ty sights there on 23rd and 6th?

i know the area. there is a national guard armory on 14th street between 7th or 8th avenue, but you're dealing with a basic new york city, chelsea commercial street with restaurants and coffee shops and the famed chelsea hotel. so am i right, there isn't really anything that would speak out to any kind of terrorist attack, except the type of fear and terror that they would potentially want to wage by putting a potential bomb in a garbage can, although i want to make clear, there is no indication that that confirmed is exactly what happened here tonight. >> reporter: right, eric. i don't see anything here in the immediate area that would be a potential target like you mentioned, like a major transportation hub. i know you mentioned the armory. we see a whole foods market place. this is a residential neighborhood. people live here. there are other bars here in the area, but again, a lot of people live in this area. i wouldn't say that there was anything that would pop up.

but we are going to try to move to the ore side of 6th and 5th. it seems to be a fluid situation, traffic has stopped. and we'll try to get you more information as the to perhaps location. we only know it was on 23rd and 6th. i don't know in front of what building. i don't know if that's on an intersection. frankly, we only know that there was a very loud sound at this point. we don't know what it was from. we just have witnesses who have been giving us an amazing account thus far. and we'll see. we'll talk to other witnesses, as well. as a matter of fact, we may have one over here, too, that we may be able to bring in. that's the best we can do. we'll bring her here, anyway. you're right, eric, go ahead. >> i was just going to say, let me bring the viewers up to date on the history of the bombings in new york city. in 1973, a palestinian group, the black september group actually left two car bombs, one on fifth avenue, one by jfk.

thankfully, they did not detonate. there was a shooter at the empire state building. much more recently, back in the early 1990s, we've had shootings. rashi baz, who turned out to be a terrorist, killing ary habber stan. but nothing like the spate of bombings the city saw at the laguardia airport when a bomb was put in a baggage container at the airport and killed 11 people. thankfully, we have not had of course a town house at greenwich village exploded accidental because of the weather underground and radicals at that point were trying to establish a bomb factory in greenwich village. but clearly, no indications of that sort here, so far. you have a witness. let's hear what she has to say. >> reporter: debora, you were in the area when the blast went off. is that correct? >> yes, i was. >> where were you?

>> i was in a burrito place, a vegetarian place. and the lady was fixing my burrito and i get ready to sit down to eat and all of a sudden we hear a boom! and it was loud and shook the building and everything. and then, bam, we ran. we hold people running, holding their ears, coughing and wiping their eyes and stuff like that. and are you all right? are you all right? and while we was doing that, we saw a big cloud of smoke. it was a fireball in between. that's how we saw it. when the fire was going on -- not the fire, because we didn't see fire. you saw like a moon, but it was rain and saw a cloud around it. and everybody was running and running and running. and we was just running. we were asking people, are you all right? i didn't want to go over there.

but it was bad. real bad. we thought it was a building collapsing, or i thought, because i don't know anything about bombs or anything like that. i thought it was a gas explosion, because i know they working on that building over there. but come to find out, it was something different. >> so they are working on a building over there by 23rd? >> yes. they are. they have the scaffolding and everything up. so i thought it was that. >> reporter: was the explosion by that building? >> it was near the building, as far as i can see. >> reporter: in front of it? >> yes, around in that area. i didn't go all the way down. but it was big enough for me to see it. i mean, it was big, it was real big. >> you were at the brurrito place, one more time, in terms of location, was where again? >> 24th and 7th, where the one train is. >> reporter: so you come out here on 24th and 7th and you see the explosion. >> i didn't come out -- i was out here all day.

it went to home depot and i went to burlington and then i was ready to eat. i was hungry, see, i'm fasting. so i went over there to get me a burrito and all of a sudden there was this big bang! i mean, a bad bang. >> deborah, thank you so much. very much appreciate it. again, that's what we've been hearing in terms of our witnesses, just a giant bang. you heard it from debora. she saw people coming out with dust on their eyes, running, a fireball type of image they saw between those clouds of smoke. these are the kind of thing we're hearing. we'll bring more to you as we get it. >> 25 people injured, as police have been telling us, as we've said. and obviously, it could have been much, much worse. but we'll have pat bronson on the phone right now, former new york city police detective. what does this sound like to you? you have a potential gas explosions, there have been problems with that in new york city. no smell of gas, according to witnesses. but when you hear this big boom and smoke, said to be in a

dumpster, what's your gut tell you? >> uh -- >> we lost pat -- >> are you back, pat? >> i'm back. what's your gut tell you about this? >> so eric, here's the thing. i'm not a big believer in coincidences. and the probability of the two events occurred today, 11 hours ago, a pipe bomb went off in seaside heights, new jersey, okay, at a military event, a foot race, commemorating the united states military. and then tonight, we have an explosion in a dumpster. so let's look at it logically. a dumpster is not a chemical lab. it's not a power plant. it's not a location where an accidental explosion could occur because of a confluence of factors or a confluence of chemicals. like you mentioned with the fln bombing. the reality is, to me, i know

it's premature and there's a lot of fog swirling, was you have 15 new yorkers, ostensibly, who have been injured by a bomb that exploded in a dumpster. think about that. what totality of circumstances could cause it occur otherwise without it being an intentional event? you have to look at it through those pragmatic lenses. and then you have to look at it through the probability, as you very astutely pointed out, when was the last time we had that kind of a bomb explosion in new york? pretty rare. >> our on the jobs for years about this, and i remember covering this for many, many years. and going back before that. the police headquarters in '82 or so, they put a bomb on the quarter and an officer went to pick up the satchel, it blew up and blew his hands off. we've had injuries of the brave and courageous law enforcement officers for many, many years. hats off to the bomb skbaud the

national guard who were in the area. one guy was in the area. that is the courage, bravery, inspiration of our country, and what we saw in 9/11 ocuring here tonight. thankfully it is small. thankfully not a lot of people are injured. but you have concern. is it possible someone or some group would target such a disparate area? how would they know there's a marine run in new jersey and potentially place something in a dumpster on a saturday night in chelsea, or did i just answer the question for you when i said, a saturday night in chelsea? >> i think you answered the question partially. the other thing, it's oftentimes, let's extrapolate a step further. let's give them the credit for mastermind planning that they put together the activity in seaside heights at a foot race to commemorate the military. the overarching premise behind terrorism is to terrorize.

take a bomb and explode it in chelsea on a saturday night and you have the totality of factors. 15 in the hospital and a terrorized proposition. that's the goal. they don't necessarily embrace the exact same symbolic event that we do. we worry about the fourth of july and our super bowl. but if you take a very pragmatic close look at the timing and the events and indicates of completed terrorist events in the last three decades, it doesn't work with the dates like we do. it's about putting us into a terrorism frenzy where we're victimized by ourself. >> isn't that the modus operandi we've seen in israel for years? to sew terror indiscriminately, like potentially we see here tonight? >> exactly, eric. and that's what it's all about. it's all about the unannounced. it's all about the unannounced. it would be very simple for them

to do it on the birthday, or independence day or christmas day or the last day of the super bowl. but of doing it on a saturday night in late september on 23rd and 6th. what about that? that speaks to the heart of the whole terrorist ideology, which is, we can be anywhere, anytime. you cannot be ready for us. >> and how do we harness this? at the 5k earlier today, some could rightfully say that garbage can should not have been open for someone to put a bomb in. in new york city, when you have events like block parties, when you have parades, they put tape and seal the manhole covers on the street. they lock the post office mailboxes, so you can't put an explosive device in the mailbox, and take the garbage cans away. >> right. but the fact is, we're in a capitalistic democracy. we're in an open society. you seal and weld and make every

manhole cover, but then to a dmpster, do the same thing, then they go to a garbage can. we have to be proactive and be deceitfully and very proactively involved in putting our and their space, learning their moves, gathering the intelligence and acting on it. that's the answer. because we're far too open to ever effectively seal all the potential spots. and you saw it today, a dumpster. are we going to start welding dumpsters up? is that the next step? not likely. we're in trouble. >> pat, we've seen -- and we are not subscribing this to terrorism. there is no confirmation. we've got to listen to witnesses. it was powerful enough to blow out windows. thankfully, only minor injuries tonight. where would you look? where would you point to? islamic terrorism starting in 1990, that hotel.

1993, the bombing of the world trade center. 1995, landmark bombing case by the blind sheik. and on and on, the subway attack that was planned, times square, a van with a bomb in times square. where would you look or could it be somewhere else? >> i'm sorry, eric? >> where would you look, pat, for potential suspects and how do they go about trying to piece this together on what group, if there is one, potentially did this? >> you're breaking up a little bit. are you requesting an answer as to where would we look next to try to mitigate this sort of threat? >> yes, to try to find out who did this? >> the reality is, we have to go on the offensive. and ooum not looking to go on a sermon, but we are far too open. a dumpster. you're not going to weld every dumpster, but you have to be

proactive and gather actionable intelligence. what's actionable intelligence? that's the intelligence that's going to inform and synthesize against our plans so we can go after these guys. we've got to put our people in their space and know what they're thinking, as much as we can, and react to them. >> pat -- >> and at an event like tonight, who knows? how are you going to stop that? you'll see. i'll bet you on this one. >> you know, i have tremendous faith in our law enforcement, in the fbi, and our officials to be able to track this down. one of the first steps and places they start are the cameras. video cameras are all over the place. obviously, they'll be looking through those cameras and seeing that. there we see some of the ems of the city of new york with some of their equipment, obviously. as we said, 25 people have been injured. thankfully, the injuries have been minor this evening. when this explosion of some nature erupted suddenly with a loud bang, blew out windows of the apartment buildings in a

brownstone there, ringing and sticking in the people's ears, occurred at 8:30 this evening on the corner of the 23rd street, the chelsea section of manhattan on a saturday night. let me tell you about that. it's a busy, packed saturday night here in new york city. you've got the chelsea hotel, which is a very trendy spot, right on that block. you've got a terrific spanish restaurant right there on that block. you've got clubs, restaurants, people out in a beautiful late 70s, early 80s temperature on a fall day that's mild and balmy. the streets of the city are packed tonight. and then in a dumpster or by a garbage can, there is some type of explosion that occurred that brings the very real fears that we have gone through in this city and in this country all these years to the fore. no krpgs that this is terrorism. no confirmation that this was even an explosive device of any

sort. no confirmation that this was a bomb. but it certainly sounds like that. no one tonight so far saying that they smelled. smell of gas, which would be the first thing you would think during a gas explosion. very early on in the investigation. we do not want to rush to any unwarranted conclusions, but clearly, as we've been reporting tonight, many questions in light of the fact in seaside heights, new jersey, earlier today, a pipe bomb did go off on the route of a 5k by the marines that would benefit marine families. so what does that tell you? on the phone now, bill daley, former fbi investigator. bill, what do we do? >> eric, i think the first thing as we start to look at this scene is really have the bomb technicians start to be able to call through the area and try to understand what actually they have been, the thing that

exploded there. was there a device, some other explanation. this whole area, as the viewers are seeing, is really a crime scene, because the dumpster went off, there would have been shrapnel or other debris, perhaps parts of if, it was, in fact, a device, scattered around the area. i think you alluded to it earlier, a couple of incidents in new york city pb francis towngren and the bombing at la part of fbi's crime scene response team that went out there. so i'm kind of familiar with these teams. and it is important that wider swath of area be cordoned off and all the evidence gathered. >> bill, are they right now, obviously, thinking or suspecting it could be an explosive device? gathering metal fragments. they solved the 1993 bombing of

the world trade center when up with of the terrorists tried to get his deposit back at the rent-a-car place where they rented the van. and they were able to find the vin number of the van and solved that. >> could it have been cherry bombs, kids? >> that will be the analysis they could do fairly quickly. so if they do find that, it is that dumpster, they can do some sampling inside of that, to determine what type of material, what type of residue is left over to further, you know, understand whether it could have been. i think, also, you know, i think remainder during these type of incidents does err on the side that it could be a true incident. they're going to handle it as a crime scene, but also be kind of wary of the fact that, you know, you call everybody to one area and something else happens other places and or people are drawn

into an area, first responders, as you know, and perhaps there's something else there. they have to be very cautious, as they go through these steps, because we don't know what's around, and because that area is both a very lively area with shops and restaurants open, pedestrians on the street and many places if somebody really wanted to hide a device, they could do that. so they have to be very careful as they go through this process. one of the things you mentioned, eric, which is really key, and especially in a place like new york city, especially in a place around 23rd street and 6th avenue are the multitude of cameras that are out there. both the -- there are many cameras that the nypd has put up on lamp poles in and around the area, but also all the private cameras, cameras that commercial establishments and even private people have put up for their own security. >> what happens with them right now? how long do they last? but it takes some time to go

through all of this. you've got to go shop to shop, door to door, building the building. a lot of buildings in new york city, they have the cameras in the lobby and this will take some time. >> it will take some time, and the first thing will be to find out if this is a device, are there remnants of it, and law enforcement both on the federal and local level have done extensive training with their bomb detection teams by blowing up various types of devices, so when they go into a scene, they can already have kind of a fingerprint, if you will, of the way the device went off, which is an indication of perhaps what the material used was or whether it was a pipe bomb, whether it was some type of canister, whether it was attached to a propane tank as the terrorists used back in the '70s. was there something like that involved? so when they go there and start to look at the physical manifestation of the crime scene, they're able to start to

piece together pretty quickly to say, that looks like something that would be "x" as opposed to an accident. are. >> bill, you mentioned the word "device," and i don't want to get ahead of the story. there is no confirmation of this, what happened, what was in there, particularly. we have had gas explosions in new york. one levelled a building when there was an illegal gas hookup that blew that build up in the lower east side of manhattan, but clearly this is the history because of what happened earlier in seaside heights, but new york city being the epicenter of what terrorists saying they want to target and the like. bill, last word, ten seconds. >> again, ruling it out, whether it's something that was actually, you know, a put-together device or something that just occurred by itself, certainly coincidental with the

incident in jersey raises the concerns of law enforcement to be very cautious as they approach and drill further down into the investigation. >> bill daley, formerly of the fbi, thank you so much for joining us on the fox news, our coverage live here in new york continues of this explosion. good evening. two hours ago, some type of explosion went off in west 23rd street, the chelsea center in manhattan. 25 people have been injured, thankfully, there are minor injuries. and of course, the investigation now only begins. was this a terrorist attack? was it a bomb that someone put inside a dumpster? was it fireworks or a cherry bomb or something else? you're looking at what we are told is a photo of that dumpster in which this very large, as it is called, explosion went off. it blew out windows of a brownstone building on the street, blew out windows -- cars that were parked on the street. so clearly, it was powerful enough to do some damage and thankfully, on a crowded

saturday night on a beautiful fall night here in new york city, when people are just enjoying the joys of this town, no one was killed. we have to thank -- be thankful of that and count our prayers so far this evening. new york city fire department reports explosive devices with multiple injuries. that is the first time that we've seen the term "explosive device." we're awaiting for more confirmation of what potentially this could have been. we're told the new york city mayor, bill de blasio, is on his way to this scene. he was at gracie mansion, the official residence of the new york city mairps. that's on the upper east side, multiple miles away. 10, 12 miles away or so. so we expect to see him and get a briefing from the new york city police department and the commissioner as well as the mayor as soon as we have it. witnesses describing an explosion and a blast that was deafening, loud, just completely ear-ringing suddenly and scaring

everyone, obviously, on the street in light of the terrorist mode that we are living in now. many wondering if this was, indeed, some type of random terrorist attack, where someone would put something inside a dumpster, too. as one of our guests just said a few minutes ago, to try to sew uncertainty and fear or if this is something else. it is extremely early in the investigation. many times early reports are wrong. we do not want to get ahead of ourselves waiting for confirmation from law enforcement authorities, no heart what the witnesses say, no matter what others are saying this evening, we will wait for the law enforcement officials of the city and the federal government to confirm what they think happened there tonight. brian llenas has been reporting live. just a normal new york city street with the restaurants and shops. so if you want to sew fear,

sadly, tragically, that would potentially be the type of place to do it? >> right, in the middle of midtown, manhattan. there's a whole foods restaurant here. when the explosion went off, a witness described a fireball in between clouds of smoke. somebody else said that it was a deafening sound for like 15 seconds. all around this area. to give a little bit more context and perspective, as we await the authorities, again the preliminary information is often wrong in these types of situations. we've heard two accounts of obviously people running with dust in their eyes. a deafening sound. people unsure. people coming out of their buildings. the explosion so loud that we heard one witness tell us, on 2 22nd and 9th, they heard the explosion and their building shook a little bit. so two avenues away.

the fdny said this explosion happened on 23rd and 6th. 25 are injured. thankfully, nonlife-threatening injuries. a little bit more about the location. residents here tell us, based on the initial that we see, we believe this explosion happened between 7th and 6th, which would mean we see where this fire truck is to the left. so that fire truck is on 23rd and 7th. it's to the left of that between 7th and 6th avenue. there is a rehabilitation center for the blind there and there is scaffolding and construction that's been happening in front of that building. we don't know where the explosion came from. we know that the fdny has called an explosive device, but initially some people have told us that they thought maybe it could have been scaffolding or some kind of construction, because there has been a construction site in and around that area of the rehabilitation center for the blind that's located between 6th and 7th on 23rd street.

again, we're rooking at 23rd and 7th here in chelsea. but bauds on what we heard, just a loud explosion. people running and people, again, nonlife-threatening injuries. at this point, we have the fdny here. they've been standing around. we saw some national guard who were here, because they happened to be here and decided to come help. they heard the blast themselves and were doing training here. >> brian, let me interrupt you for a second. we don't want to get ahead of ourselves and have been discussing the history of terrorism here in new york city. clearly that comes to the foreof people and authorities. reuters this evening right now coming over the wires, reporting that authorities are considering the possibility that this was construction materials, materials from construction material in that dumpster. this, of course, is very polyp narrow information pb so discuss, and that the scaffolding behind us? we should get a scientist in here who can tell us what type of materials that are dumped by construction crews can actually

cause some type of explosion of this magnitude and force to injure 25 people and cause such damage there is this evening. what's going on in terms of the construction? >> reporter: okay, well, what we were just talking about, the school for the blind, that rehabilitation center, that's interesting information you have just given us. witnesses have told us there was scaffolding or construction happening in front of that school or rehabilitation center for the blind. one witness said they heard it from 29nd and 9th, two avenues away, said they thought it sounded like a falling of some kind. if it is some sort of explosion that happened because of construction material, that would make sense because given between 23rd and 7th and 6th avenue, where this explosion was supposed to have happened, there is a construction site around the rehabilitation site in that area for the blind. what you see behind me is a different construction site. it's scaffolding you would normally see onn a new york city building, but that has nothing to do with what we've seen.

we did see the fdny, the fire department, and bomb-sniffing dogs here about 45 minutes ago come in and around the dumpster that was here and kind of hang out. that's where the fdny is hanging out and waiting for word at this point. but they were checking in and around areas of dumpsters. >> talking about dumpsters and garbage cans, they were, as a matter of precaution, going through all the other garbage cans and the dumpsters in the whole area to make sure there wasn't any other type of device, as potentially, and if we've been reporting this evening, the fox news channel, no confirmation of any type of device. no confirmation of what's been called an ied that causes explosion, despite the fact that witnesses have said that and felt that this evening. reuters coming out with the report that it could be potential construction material. so we'll run that down and let me know, what type of properties

that could be put in a dumpster. certainly you would think that would be a violation of new york city building codes to possibly c cause a reaction to have an explosion on 23rd street on a saturday night, presumably hours after the construction had already finished, if, indeed, it was going on today on a satur y saturday. brian, thank you so much. do you have something else to say? >> just to reiterate, i think timing here is important given that everybody was on edge after what happened in seaside park. the fact that there was a pipe bomb or some sort of explosive device put there. and all of a sudden you get reports of a dumpster or some explosives perhaps in a dumpster. i think that's what had everybody jumping to that conclusion and everybody on edge. given what we've been dealing with all day, 90 minutes south in seaside park. i think that's important here for context and perspective, as to why this kind of reaction may be -- we're unsure yet to confirm, but why you're seeing this kind of reaction on top of everything else. >> certainly.

and of course with the history of the type of attacks we've had here in new york city, going back decades when it comes to bombs and devices and ieds -- >> anytime you have an explosion in manhattan qush. >> exactly. puts everyone on edge. we are now waiting for new york mayor bill de blasio and the police commissioner and other folks to brief us to try to determine exactly what this was caused by. if it was a chemical reaction from something from the construction site, whether, indeed, it was some type of alleged device, how people have been saying, and to find out more about that, let's go to michael solomon. you on the phone? >> i am. >> what's your experience and what do you think they're doing? >> i was in the department in the '70s when problems happened all over the place with the weather underground and everything else and that bomb that went off at 75 and laguardia, which killed 11 and injured 74. but you know, we came to

september 11th last weekend without incident, but we have to be diligent every day. you know, i've listened to your reports earlier and i've got to be honest, not to disagree with you, because i respect you highly, but i doubt if this was fireworks, because when you look at that dumpster and see what condition it's in, feireworks wouldn't do that. and building materials normally wouldn't explode. a couple of chemicals may erupt in spontaneous combustion and cause a fire, not be an explosion that big. and as one of your previous guests said, i don't believe in coincidences, with what happened this morning in seaside heights and what happened tonight. and ok, nobody's taken credit for it yet. and they usually don't take credit until they finished their dirty deed. my concern would be, see something, say something. they may not be finished. we had one go off this morning, an explosion this evening, and thank god nobody was killed in this and injured severely, but i

don't think we've seen the last of that. i'm afraid to say that. >> that presumes that, indeed, it was a device. you're leaning in the camp that it possibly was and not construction material. >> no, it's -- you know, i've seen construction material. you can put two materials together you can find under your kitchen sink and have spontaneous combustion. it's not going explode. it will erupt in fire. and it's saturday night. there aren't too many people construction people who will be working on a saturday night that will be dumping stuff on the street. >> and the point you just made about what would happen with chemicals. would you have a sharp, huge-sounding explosion, strong enough to blow out windows of the cars nearby and blow out windows in the street. >> years ago in supermarket, they found out that the chlorine powder in sunscreen if mixed together would start a fire in

supermarkets, because sometimes a bottle leaked. but it didn't cause an explosion. it heated, and that was spontaneous combustion. unless someone dumped an oxygen tank in there. but nobody does those things. >> what type of law is there? obviously, new york city, by the way, most people around the country don't know this, you are not allowed to have a propane grill. you can haven't a propane tank. it's against the law for this very type of purpose. >> exactly. so nobody's throwing a propane tank in there on their way back home, or something, especially if it's got gas in it and it's full. >> and i only saw the photos here, but those aren't chemicals that just erupted into flames. that was an explosion and this morning, by the grace of god, nobody was injured because that race was delayed by half an hour. >> the one in new jersey. and what's shocking about that,

it was a race for marines -- >> yeah, well. >> but the families of our troops. that certainly was a targeted type of terrorist attack by the grace of god did not kill or injure smin, because the race was delayed. i opened up the newscast this evening about 45 minutes ago, talking about the history of what's happened in new york city. run out through that. 1981, '82 i was covering the bombing right at the police headquarters at 1pp, first police plaza by the faln. laguardia, you mentioned. we have been thankfully immune from this for so many years, it's shocking to think it could happen again. >> you call it immune, i call it come place sent. we have to be ready 24 hours a

day, 24/7. and i remember that. it was the end of january, 1975, and it was center stage right there. as a matter of fact, the police officer who tried to disarm that bomb at the old 240 center street, the old police headquarters, when i was in the department was my lieutenant's son who was in the bomb squad at the time. lost part of his ear, a coup fingers on a hand, and by the grace of god he's alive, but was badly, badly injured. >> and a lot of people don't know about this one. in 1973, car bombs placed by black september on fifth avenue as well as at jfk, trying to carry the israeli airline. and thank goodness those devices in those cars did not go off. they were not able to, obviously, kill anyone, and the suspect was in jail and education t extradited a number of years

ago. you talked about francis tavern. tell me about willy morales. and with our new relations with cuba under the obama administration -- >> i was down there at the time. >> they're down there living the life in cuba and our state department says, yes, they're having discussions about potential potentially extraditing them back from cuba to the united states. >> it is crazy. you had "the new york times" bombing in '69 and it's just unbelievable. but it was a different reason in those days. today, it's international. in those days, it was, you know, local terrorism. you know, the black panthers and so forth and everything else. but when you go back to it, you look at it, i mean, it's krauz what was going on in the '70s. and then things got quite for a number of years and now it's international. >> again, i want to bring our viewers up to date. you've been looking at live

pictures from wnyw. and on the right is that dumpster that they believe had something in it or exploded. authorities not saying it was an ied. not saying it was even nip of bomb or an explosive device. no connection being made at all to what happened earlier in seaside heights and new jersey this morning when a pipe bomb did go off in advance of a 5k run that benefited the marines. so it's very, very early in the investigation and reuters has this report out saying it may have been some type of construction material. so clearly a lot of stuff is on the table, but is you know, michael, that the fdny and counterterrorism are on the scene and at heightened alert tonight because of that? >> the first step is you've got to secure the area. and you're looking for a secondary device. god forbid there's another one

with, a device a block away or near it. this is about six blocks from chelsea clinton's apartment. but the -- that's the first thing. you want to make sure everybody in the area is safe. and then you've got to concern yourself with your own people, your own police officers and firemen and emergency services that are on the scene. you want to make sure they're safe as they look for other devices. the first thing they'll do is set up a perimeter where they think where shrapnel may have landed or other things may have exploded or blown out of the area. there could be trace elements on pieces of glass that were blown out of windows in apartments. and they're going to have to bag and tag all that stuff, exactly where it came from, so they can try to determine what materials were used in the explosion. and of course, with all the lab work today, we've all seen csi on tv, you can do a chemical

speck to gra spe spectograph, you can come up with all kinds of things. >> so you can see the dumpster w, whether it was a chemical or a fireworks, that's a powerful explosion. >> absolutely, and thank god nobody was standing right next to that dumpster. it's frightening. and 23rd street and 6th avenue is a big hub. you have a subway right there downstairs and it's a trafficked area. it's chelsea. it's saturday night in chelsea. people are going to restaurants, going out for the evening. it's a beautiful night. you know, it's -- we just have to be cautious and say to ourselves, you know what they do, they do this to disrupt -- if this is terrorism, they do this to disrupt our way of life. and that's what they're trying to do. they want to make us afraid to go out. and they feel like if we're afraid to go out, it can hurt us economically. people aren't going to go to

restaurants or to the theater and so we have to leper to be cautious and careful. >> thank you for joining us this evening, michael solomon. >> you can read this two ways. the guys working at a construction site accidentally put chemicals or what not in a dumpsters or maybe that i have an asscetylene torch there and explodes. or as others have indicated, it is a busy saturday night, as i indicated earlier this evening. right in the middle of 23rd street, in light of the pipe bomb that went off earlier today in new jersey and you can read it as a potential terrorist attack. we're waiting for confirmation from law enforcement authorities. they're trying to get the facts themselves before they come out with a public statement. on the phone now, steve rogers,

federally former law enforcement and nutley, new jersey, officer, who's been on the streets for years and years, covering this type of stuff. steve, this kind of brings you back to the '70s and '80s. >> it sure does. i can tell you right now, what is happening now, eric, is that the authorities in new york are now going to be contacting the authorities in new jersey and they're going to try to quickly establish if the explosion in new york, if the evidence that has been collected and analyzed in new york compares to the evidence that has been collected and analyzed in new jersey. then we may have a real problem on our hands. but as you've said -- >> and what would that tell you? >> that would tell you that the people who made and built those bombs in new york may equal a terror cell.

>> this could be very well, simply, as you said, a construction site accident or you could have a copy cat, who read about and heard about what happened in new jersey this morning and decided to commit this act. as i said earlier, there is a comparative analysis, i'm sure, that is being taking place as we speak. and if the bomb-making material is the same, if the timing device, if there was any timing device on this one as there was in new jersey, we have we have a problem on our hands. >> and hopefully that's not the case. we have the one report this evening that there was some type of chemicals from a construction site. and on the side of that dumpster, the word "bic." buc regulates trade waste. it's the integrity commission of new york city. and aisle reading right from their website. they operate commercial waste removal business or conduct waste removal activities in new york. the goal, they say, is for all

businesses to operate in a fair, competitive, open environment. trade waste says bic is a commercially generated waste and includes yellow grease, tires, et cetera. a solid waste, recyclable waste, medical waste, landscaping waste, construction, and demolition waste from construction sites. so i mean, steve, if you've got -- would that be just a coincidence? or what if this was construction material? i want to thank my colleague, scott water, for pointing that out. what if it was construction material in this new york city regulated type of dumpster that they put the wrong stuff in the wrong bin? >> well then somebody's going to pay a high penalty for doing that. but if it were construction, and i hope out of the two, aftout o possible terrorist attack or construction, i hope it was construction. if it was construction, no matter what it was, the absolute incredible, quick response of the new york city police

department, fire department, and the counterterrorism task force has to make us feel that boy, we got law enforcement agencies on the ball. they were there quickly, lives were saved, there were evacuations, and they got right to work on this. and keep in mind, as we're talking about the analysis, the collection and analysis of intelligence, the video games on every corner. the video cameras are in stores. all of this will be analyzed as the days go on. if this was a terrorist attack, you'll see a lot of video footage that will be analyzed lout the next few days. they need to know who went down that street early thrk. who was in the area late last nigh night. >> and certainly, we're going to find out more about this. we're being told now that we will have a briefing in about.

and especially when we're dealing with such a fluid type of situation, when the facts change, the views change, when you have all these witnesses saying there was an explosion, some type of explosive device. as we have been reporting this evening, not confirmed, not confirmed it was a bomb, not confirmed it was an ied, not confirmed it was any type of terrorist attack, but clearly that comes to the forefront and to the forefront of one's mind when this does happen. steve, bring us back for a moment to the history of all those years. we've been discussing that. that is come to mind of new yorkers, who are aware of this of the history of bombings. i used to have bomb drills. i went to trinity school in the west side of manhattan. when i was a kid, you would have a fire drill. we would go out on 91st street

for a bombing drill and wait and it was a chance to get out of class for a while and we would go back into class. we took this as an everyday thing back then. >> that's absolutely right, but times have changed and warfare has changed. we've said all along, with regard to the war on terrorism and most of your guests have said and i agree with the this evening, we have to become very, very proactive now, we have to increase our intelligence capability testing abilities. we have the gf the nsa the ability to tap into data programming -- >> but you know how controversial that is. they talk about keeping all the megadata, although they don't listen into our phone calls unless you're a terrorist. all the laws and so-called surveillance and operations in mosques, conducted earlier, that's very controversial and people say that violates civil liberties and is against our constitution. >> my counter to that is, you won't have a country left to

worry about any civil rights. there comes a time when we have to decide what our priorities are. and most americans' priorities are, let's make sure we're doing everything we can to slooiave l and save this country from being taken down. they want to take this country down and kill americans and kill women and children. it just goes on and on and on. one point as americans, we're going to have to say, maybe we'll have to sacrifice a little bit of our freedom. >> i think most americans feel that way, do what i got to do to keep my country safe. >> coming up, mayor bill de blasio will hold a news conference around 11:00 p.m.

>> it could be construction materials, potentially. >> and if it wasn't, it will be quick and transporter. here's the key to all of this. first of all, you've been very, very responsible in your reporting. the last they think on earth we want to do is panic people. i hope that the mayor and officials at 11:00 tonight will be very, very methodical, very, very transparent, because they can ease a lot offing an indi a tonight. >> we saw that september 11th. remember the heroism and courage of mayor rudy giuliani who was having breakfast on the peninsula. he runs out and sees the burning towers, goes down and tries to calm not just his city, but also his nation. and as new yorkers having gone through this, that morning walking to work here, the first plane flew over my head.

i will forever, the rest of my life remember that sight. he was crabbing a little bit to the right, turning, heading directly toward the world trade center. it was very loud. we knew exactly what it was. right after that, considering the history of the terrorist attacks here in new york city, dating back to the assassination of marija hannic. we have been struck by the terrorists at the heart of our country and the soul of our nation. hopefully this is construction materials tonight that this is not some type of device, as first reported, or ied, as witnesses said, that instead it's some type of combustible evidence and we'll see what authorities tell us in a few moments, although that probably will be slipped forward a little further. steve, last words on what we faced? what comes next? >> well, what comes next is the

transparent and methodical and very, very important information we'll hear from the authorities. but all of us, those in the media and leaders are doing something very, very important. we're calming nerves and let people in this country know, we're safe, these things will happen, but let's move forward and come together and pray for our country and do what's right to keep our country safe. >> absolutely. steve rogers, thank you for your insight, and analysis this evening. you've been on the job for so many years. we are now awaiting in about 45 second what could be the start of a news conference to get more details on this. those things often are slipped forward to bring folks up to date. you see that damage on the 23rd street and the west side of manhattan. whatever was in that dumpster just blew it up. bic on the right. you can see the bic. that is the part of the city of new york that deals with

industrial waste. this could be a big clue on what this is. we will continue our fox news channel live coverage here on fnc through the evening. stay with us. i'm eric shawn. we will be right back momentarily. i'm eric shawn. we're reporting the very latest that we know of that explosion that occurred in a dumpster on 23rd street in the west side of manhattan in the chelsea district of new york city. only minor injuries, no one has been killed. and authorities now combing through that area, including the nypd and fbi counterterrorism force. we are told that president obama has been advised what happened in this explosion at the white house earlier this evening, an explosion in new york, he's at the white house in terms of what is happening and as the investigation unfolds. witnesses say they thought it was a bomb. they thought it was an ied, it was a very loud e