in the meantime, let's take you to what's going on elsewhere. good morning, i'm chris jansing, and the white house is juggling a lot of huge stories this morning, from the ukraine, to health care, and they are worried how all of it's going to play out in the next midterm election. that's crucial to democrats if they are going to hang on to power in the senate. this hour, three cabinet members are going to be testifying on capitol hill, three separate hearings. this afternoon the president is also going to meet with the ukrainian prime minister to talk about the situation in crimea. all of it happening after that closely watched florida congressional race that democrats lost last night. just as our brand new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll showed the president's approval at 41%. those things, republican opposition on foreign policy to domestic agenda, but they aren't stopping president obama from pushing ahead. this week he's going to unveil a plan to give more people overtime pay as part of his big

push for income inequality. he's called it a defining issue. he also used a shopping trip to the gap yesterday, where they are boosting worker's pay to $9 an hour this year to highlight the importance of minimum wage. >> not only am i continuing to push congress to pass a federal increase in the minimum wage, but what i also said was that businesses could take, and they should as well as states and local governments, to make sure if folks are working full time, they are not living in poverty. >> democrats hope the minimum wage issue will be a big boost heading into the midterm elections, and so that's one thing that the white house is watching very closely, but also take a look at our poll. it gives republicans a one-point edge on the question of who should control congress. when it comes to approval ratings, no one, though, scores lower than the tea party. 23%. let me bring in our company, msnbc.com managing editor dafna

linzer and washington post reporter, nia malika henderson. good morning. >> good morning. >> dafna, let's start with income inequality and the new plans to take executive action yet again, give overtime to workers who previously would be exempt. "the new york times" calls them fast food managers, loan officers, computer technicians. a lot of others if you put them in a category, are executives or professionals. what is this move by the president tell you? >> a couple things. one is, last summer we had worker strikes all over this country, trying to improve their minimum wage and how much they are making, so this president is interested in raising the minimum wage. he's done everything he can from sort of an executive order level earlier this year, it was a promise in the state of the union address he would do so. now he's pushing on overtime. this is a president working very hard, i think, to make sure worker rights are protected and as you said, this is about, you

know, bridging that income inequality gap and allowing people to have better lives. this is something he has been focusing on, i think, from the beginning and trying to improve the economy. >> i want to get back to our conversation on the president, because there is so much going on today, but we have pictures, better pictures than we had a couple of minutes ago, what's going on in harlem, in new york city, and there you see, look at all the smoke that's billowing out of that building. there's a report, and it hasn't been confirmed, that there's some sort of explosion that happened there and potentially at least part of a building collapsed, and i think if you can sort of look through the smoke, you can see where that happened. there was a three-alarm fire. this is an area around 116th street in uptown manhattan on park avenue. let's take a listen. this is the wnbc helicopter that's above. >> if anything is actively feeding the fire, there was some information a little bit earlier

that there possibly could have been a gas leak. we haven't confirmed that yet. michael, you were talking about towards the left-hand portion of your screen, whether or not there was debris on the metro north tracks. we've answered that question, there's lots of debris. as far as metro north is concerned, are those tracks damaged in any way, we'll have to continue to follow that end of it for you, but still, clearly an active fire. you can see firefighters on the rooftop, on aerial platforms, you can see the debris that has been sprayed over other portions of the building, down on to the streets, and, of course, on the metro north tracks. michael? >> that's the local report from the helicopter above there. asking about the tracks, mentioned this a few minutes ago, second busiest commuter rail service in the country. this is a major corridor there for metro north, big commuter rail service, but the immediate problem, obviously, for the folks who are on the scene, and again, the fdny, fire department

sending 33 units, 106 members, is anybody trapped in there, their first order of business is to get that fire under control to determine where the danger spots are, but, of course, to also see the people who might be in danger. we know some people have already been taken to the hospital, but you can see how closely set those buildings are. those are residential buildings. i'm sure they are either self evacuating or making sure people in those buildings are getting out, even where there's not fire, there's, obviously, heavy smoke condition and real concerns there and, obviously, concerns if this was an explosion of secondary explosions, so those are all being coordinated on the ground right now by fire department. let's go back to the helicopter. they have more information. >> no doubt going down into those tracks and trying to find out if there are any damage to the tracks themselves. as far as transit is concerned,

metro north, it's going to at least have delays and suspensions for a while to come as they remove that debris. you can see down on the street here, set-up part of your screen, we're getting a much better look of what things look like on the ground. you can get an idea if there was, in fact, an explosion, which it looks like there was, you can see the effect it had on the ground over there, getting a much better or clearer picture of what may have happened. >> and to pick up on what they are saying, obviously, it looks like it's incinerated on the ground and the fire officials there, trying to make sure that scene is under control. you can see that there's a number of hoses that are working this scene right now. this is something, obviously, this is one of the premier fire departments in the country and for better or worse, they have issues every day and they are highly trained, and because of the population density in new york city, any time there is an incident like that, the response

time tends to be incredibly rapid. you're hearing in the local reports their concern, which is about commuters, and we're talking about tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, but when you're talking about the second largest commuter rail service coming out of grand central station, which is itself sort of the butt of kind of jokes, as busy as grand central station. this is a major incident on so many levels. the first of all, as we've been saying, it's really about life and getting in there, trying to make sure if there are people who are looking to be rescued, making sure that the people who are in the close vicinity are taken somewhere, are gotten out of the line of dangerous. this is also a very dangerous situation for the fdny. these are the kinds of situations they train for so heavily, because again, if you don't know what the source of the original explosion is, it's difficult to know what the attendant dangers are, if there

could be some other issues. there you see already, this is the first time we've seen on the adjacent roof, you can see some of the firefighters up there checking. that's on the middle right-hand area of your screen. let's listen again to what the chopper's reporting. >> we know there's a fire, we know there's a partial collapse of the building, but you can see one of the things we do talk about, like i was saying, when we deal with explosions is containment. it's basically what you're thinking about is how close are other structures? how contained is the explosion, because if there are other structures very, very close by, obviously, the damage is going to be a lot more severe. in this case, you can see that we have the building on one side of the street, one side of park avenue, then we have the elevated train tracks on the other side of the street, so that is definitely going to be a factor as we go through this, if it is determined this was an explosion, the fact it is in a relatively contained area,

anybody who drives up or down park avenue in this area by the elevated train tracks knows this. michael? >> and i think, you know, makes a good point, there are, obviously, a lot of areas of new york city where you would have on all four sides, you would have other residential areas, if you've ever been to new york city, you know how congested and vertical this city is, but at least for some distance, and the wind doesn't seem to be helping with this, for sure, because it's not blowing in the direction of the tracks, it's blowing in the direction of the heavily residential area, but they at least had the one side where we saw the damage on the ground, the incendiary effects of the fire and explosion that they are able to set up, essentially, their working area and go from there and assess the scene and get all set up the way that they are trained to do. one of the things that we're going to be looking for here very closely, obviously, is how many people might have been in

that building. we don't know. i can't tell, certainly from looking at it, if there might be offices. often in these buildings that look residential like this, you also have businesses that are on the ground floor, whether or not they would be open or not, how many people might have been in that building. it may bode well the time of day, frankly, that more people would have been out of the building, would have been gone to work, so that's one of the things we're going to look at very closely. again, for you who might be joining us, let's update you on the pictures you're seeing, 116th and park avenue, harlem in new york city, what appears to be an explosion and partial collapse of a building and huge assets from the fire department on scene right now. we know that there are a few injuries, some people, perhaps four people, taken to local hospitals. train evacuations continue to be under way and grand central station, metro north trains going north have been suspended. we're going to take a quick

break and be back with more on msnbc. [ female announcer ] we lowered her fever.

you raise her spirits. we tackled your shoulder pain. you make him rookie of the year. we took care of your cold symptoms. you take him on an adventure. tylenol® has been the number 1 doctor recommended brand of pain reliever for over 20 years. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol®. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. life with crohn's disease ois a daily game of "what if's". what if my abdominal pain and cramps come back? what if the plane gets delayed? what if i can't hide my symptoms? what if? but what if the most important question is the one you're not asking? what if the underlying cause of your symptoms is damaging inflammation? for help getting the answers you need, talk to your doctor and visit crohnsandcolitisinfo.com to get your complimentary q&a book, with information from experts on your condition.

we're continuing our breaking news coverage. this is another angle, something we haven't seen before at 116th street and park avenue in manhattan, where now we are hearing from the fire department of new york that this is a partial building collapse with a fire. so, they aren't using the word explosion yet, but it does appear that that's what precipitated what we're seeing right now, an extraordinarily heavy smoke condition and reports you can see this hope all the way to midtown. if you're not familiar with new york city, the trains often originate in grand central station, that's at 42nd street. we are talking about 116th street, so 74 blocks away, and in that area, all the way down

to midtown in the 50s, you're seeing this smoke condition, so that tells you a little bit about just how heavy and how serious this is. the other thing to know is that it's a three-alarm fire. so that's a lot of personnel who the fdny have put on the scene to take care of this building collapse. a lot of unanswered questions, though. one is, what happened here, how did it happen? we don't know what's in this building, so that's going to be one of the key questions that's going to have to be answered here, although right now on the scene, they are dealing with this immediate situation and we've already seen some members of the fdny on adjacent rooftops, i have to believe now looking at this smoke scene that they can even be shrouded in smoke at this point, because this looks like a much larger cloud of smoke and it's billowing out even more than we've seen before. we have on the scene and moving assets to the scene our local

affiliate, wnbc. let's listen in. >> whatever happened, the force of this explosion, one of the folks who heard this and saw this, andrew brandt joins us on the phone now. he lives on 110th and fifth, but he has an pormt veapartment ver up. andrew, are you there? >> yes, i'm here. >> andrew, what can you tell me about what you saw and heard? >> i heard an explosion, and immediately looked off my terrace and saw a cloud of smoke rising with debris in the air, looked like paper and other products. and then the cloud just got larger and larger and within a minute, sirens started to sound and police and also firefighters arriving at the scene. >> andrew, even from your apartment, fairly high up, this must have sounded like just a

tremendous explosion. >> it did. it actually shook my building from six blocks south and a little bit to the left, but, yeah, i could feel the -- did feel like thunder, a big clap of thunder. >> what can you see now? >> right now i see a haze over the area. before when the winds changed, i could see the firefighters fighting the fire. a haze over the neighborhood. >> as someone living close by, this must be just such a disturbing experience for you personally. >> a little bit, yeah. an explosion is a little worrying to know the cause. >> and at this point, no doubt you're looking down and you're seeing a mass of activity, fire and emergency vehicles responding to the scenes, streets blocked off and still as we see in the live pictures from chopper 4, this immense volume

of white smoke. >> correct, yeah, i see the choppers in the air. yes, white smoke everywhere. has an acrid smell when it first started forming, had that kind of sulfur smell, which could have been burning, but i don't know if that is a part of explosion or what. i don't know. >> that's what people are investigating right now. andrew brown, thank you very much for joining us, thank you for sending us pictures, as well. as always, taking these pictures for us and videos, do it safely first, safety first, especially in a situation like this. thanks very much. we have more information now from melissa russeau with regard to this building. it is a number of minor injuries reported at this point. no confirmation of anything more serious or fatalities, it looks at this point like the building is destroyed, described as four to five stories. that would sync up with what witnesses were telling us.

workers on the scene, though, they are accounted for. we want to stress that, workers who are on the scene are accounted for, so that is a key element there, but there you can see several police and fire department ladders now and they are spraying water on the fire. the collapsed structure you can see what is left of it just to the right of that single building where you see two windows and to the left of the larger structure to the right. we talked about workers accounted for and one of the questions, no doubt, that's going to come up is was there any work being done in the area or in the building at this time and might that have in any way -- >> michael, the local anchor there at wnbc, he knows the area very well and asked a very good question, any time you walk around the streets of manhattan, and harlem is no exception, there's so much work going on every single day, whether it's a building being renovated or exterior, interior, that's one of the key questions they'll be looking at and something they'll

be able to determine pretty quickly, if not by city records, just by talking to people in the area. you heard the interview with the person who lives at 110th and fifth, who talked about kind of what sounds like a percussive movement that shook his own building, six blocks to the south and to the west and we've seen the scenes on the train tracks, these are new pictures here and you can actually see some of the fire that broke out there down that train track. one of the things, obviously, that happens in this day and age, we get a lot of pictures and video from people who are in the area and we always caution folks who live around there, don't put themselves in danger, number one. number two, don't get in the way of the people who know what they are doing, but this does help to give you a sense of what we're looking at here and why that the metro north commuter trains have been suspended going north out of grand central station. we also heard from that eyewitness about the haze over the area. we've seen some shifting winds

and this heavy smoke condition. here's the testimony of another eyewitness, who wnbc talked to just a short time ago. >> sounded like a bomb. >> what happened in the immediate aftermath, marissa? >> the right after, when i looked out and i saw all the debris, obviously, well, in this area, there tends to be, you know, cops around here, here on standby, so i immediately saw, there was actually a cop car that was right in front of my building, so they rushed in. i saw there were a couple other cops that were running towards the scene. there were actually a lot of people out on the streets that ran, too, to see that everybody was okay. however, there were a lot of people running away, too. kind of explosion, you fear for the worst. >> and that was one of the eyewitnesss describing what must have been a panicked and

terrifying scene for the people who were around that area of 116th and park avenue. nbc's ron allen has made his way to the scene and joins us now. ron, where are you exactly, what are you seeing and hearing? >> reporter: well, chris, i'm about a block or so away. we started to see the smoke when we were a mile away, somewhat hazy day here, but it's, obviously, a huge scene out here of first responders, police, firefighters. i can see where they are still trying to put out the fire of the building. this is a very densely populated neighborhood. east harlem in new york, on the edge of east town manhattan. high-rise buildings, four or five stories tall and public housing buildings, so we're talking about a very densely populated area, where there are a lot of people. obviously, one of the big concerns now is whether any people were trapped in this building when the explosion happened and when the building

collapsed. it's still unclear exactly what the building was. i can't see quite from my vantage point. we're still trying to make our way as close as we can to see what we can see. still unclear exactly what the building was, what was going on in there, but i suspect there were a lot of people in the area, near the building, and perhaps in the building. right now there are people we can see trying to account for everybody in the neighborhood. people are covering their faces, as well, because of the smoke that's billowing and wafting out here in the streets of the city. there are countless fire and police apparatus on scene. i can see where the firefighters are trying to attack the flames from above, shooting down. i can see a partial outline of the buildings that are next to it, which appear to be residential buildings, but there are commercial properties, laundrom laundromats, a deli, a small mom and pop store, a supermarket on

the lower stores of these buildings in this community, in this neighborhood. everybody is out here in the streets taking pictures and trying to figure out what's going on. and most importantly, trying to account for all their friends, neighbors, relatives, to make sure there was nobody in that building. we have not heard reports as of yet, but that is certainly one of the biggest concerns here now. and i'm trying to get a little bit closer to see what i can see, but again, it's just a very chaotic scene out here right now, because this all just happened, and everybody is just trying to make sure the people are safe and figure out what exactly happened here. the leading theory, of course, seems to be some kind of gas explosion. there are people we talked to described feeling the ground shake, who describe a lot of confusion and chaos when this all happened. we're now walking out with another fire unit. there are firefighters still arriving on the scene to try and put out the fire and just take control of the situation at this

point. chris? >> you actually are seeing new firefighters. i think that's what you just said, and we do know, we just got this confirmed, ron, that the fdny has asked for a fourth alarm for this incident, which is the address at least is along park avenue. already, as we've been telling you, there were 33 units, 106 members, and i realize, ron, you only have one particular vantage point where you are, but in addition to fire trucks, what other kinds of assets are you seeing on the scene? >> well, the utilities are here. again, the leading theory at this point would be this is some kind of a gas explosion, and from where i am now, i can see the outlines of the buildings next to where there's a gaping hole between the two structures, not a hole in the ground, but a hole where a building once stood and they appear to be residential buildings, so again, unclear what the building was that was demolished, but perhaps a residence, apartment buildings, and all these buildings on the street on park

avenue have commercial properties on the bottom ground level floor. again, there's a florist here, a deli, a shop, so the concern and the fear, obviously, is there would have been perhaps a lot of people very close by, and that's why so many people here now are just trying to account for everyone and try to make sure that everyone got out who was near any of this, so the utilities are here, i see more firefighters arriving on scene. there are police here, obviously, to try to establish a perimeter. we're at the corner of 116th street and park avenue. i'm probably 50 yards from where the firefighters are attacking the blaze. there's still a lot of very thick white smoke billowing out of the scene of this. in fact, it's blowing in this direction that makes it very difficult to see what's going on. just 25 yards from where i am,

and people here are, obviously, concerned and worried and still trying to understand what's happening. but at this point, again, the firefighters do not seem to have this blaze out, whether it is under control or not is unclear, but where i'm looking now, i can still see a lot of smoke that seems to be coming out from where the fire is, which suggests that the blaze is still going. you just reported that they added another alarm, which is more apparatus, more manpower, so this is still a very evolving situation, and, again, people are being told to stay away, but everybody is curious. again, the main concern and the hope is there are not people who are trapped in this building when it collapsed and when it exploded. >> ron, we're going to give you a break to talk to some people, maybe get some information from eyewitnesss. one of the questions that we have is whether or not there might have been work going on on the building today. so we'll let you go, but we will

definitely come back to you, and again, a fourth alarm now, major concern, might there be people trapped and how do we get the situation there under control. we will take a quick break, back with more on "jansing and co." on msnbc. so i c an reach ally bank 24/7, but there are no branches? 24/7. i'm sorry, i'm just really reluctant to try new things. really? what's wrong with trying new things? look! mommy's new vacuum! (cat screech) you feel that in your muscles? i do... drink water. it's a long story. well, not having branches let's us give you great rates and service. i'd like that. a new way to bank. a better way to save. ally bank. your money needs an ally. hi boys! i've made you campbell's chunky new england clam chowder. wow! this is incredible! i know. and now it has more clams! [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. what? [ male announcer ] it fills you up right.

it's how i look at life. especially now that i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin but wondered, could i focus on something better? my doctor told me about eliquis for three important reasons. one, in a clinical trial eliquis was proven to reduce the risk of stroke better than warfarin. two, eliquis had less major bleeding than warfarin. and three, unlike warfarin there's no routine blood testing. [ male announcer ] don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. eliquis can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking eliquis you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding like unusual bruising.

eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. those three important reasons are why i'm shooting for something better. eliquis. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor today if eliquis is right for you.

let's get you up to date on some new information we have on this explosion and building collapse in new york city, 116th and park avenue, and from the eyewitness accounts, it certainly sounds like it was an explosion that shook buildings many blocks away, and, obviously, sent people scrambling. sent people running in the streets of harlem. we have now learned officially from the fire department of new york that they are sending additional manpower and 39 units overall. 168 members of the fdny, and that would encompass everything from firefighters, to emts, to

bomb experts. we have now a perimeter that's been closed off that covers about 110th to 117th, so seven blocks there to the south, another ten blocks to the north. they are closing it off between madison and lexington avenues, to the east and to the west. let's listen in. we just got another description from an eyewitness to what happened here. the call coming in a little before 10:00 this morning. let's take a listen. >> heard an explosion and immediately looked off my terrace and saw a cloud of smoke rising with debris in the air. looked like paper and other products. and then the cloud just got larger and larger and then within a minute, sirens started

to sound and police and also firefighters arriving at the scene. it actually shook my building from six blocks south and a little bit to the west. but yeah, i could feel the -- did feel like thunder. a big clap of thunder. >> and we're just getting some indication now, again, this is based on the address that we've gotten from officials in new york city. as is typical, and you were hearing this from ron allen, there are often on these residential buildings, the ground floor has some sort of commercial operation. it appears here that there was a spanish christian church, assuming, and we don't know, but unlikely there would be any number of people in there on a wednesday morning. next to it appears to be a business, new and used piano sales and repairs. again, not the kind of office or

operation that would have a lot of people in it, but what we've also seen is absolutely devastating, the fact that you can see the partial building collapse. and there is another view that we saw of the tracks where that area that moves toward the metro north tracks looks absolutely incinerated because there was a fire. now the fdny is saying that they have not transported anybody from the scene. we had originally gotten reports, local reports, that four people were taken to the hospital. the fdny's not able to confirm that. now, it can mean a couple of things. one, what often happens in the early minutes after something like this happens, there is misreporting. the other, they were not transferred by the fdny. it's possible that if these injuries are not serious, they either got there themselves or someone helped them to a local hospital. they could have gotten in a cab.

we don't know, but we're going to keep our eye on that. again, the fdny is not confirming any injuries, but again, that doesn't mean there aren't any and doesn't mean they are not making sure there are people trapped in the building that collapsed or in the adjacent buildings. this situation is going to continue to be fluid, but we saw ron allen, our nbc reporter, getting very close. he described within perhaps 25 yards of the scene. let's bring him back in now. ron, are you on the phone with us and tell us where you are and what you're learning. >> reporter: chris, we're still about a block away, there's a police set up and we can't get closer. talking to people in the neighborhood, they heard and felt this several blocks away. one young man said he was woken up by all this and many people are very concerned, because they believe that the building that collapsed and exploded is an apartment building, a five or six story building and at this

time of day, 10:00, 11:00 in the morning or so, there's a very strong likelihood there would have been people inside. i have not seen anything -- any ambulance activity of people, causalities or victims being taken from the scene. i have not seen anything like that, but i do see a lot of people trying to make phone calls to try and find friends, neighbors, loved ones, to account for everyone. i talked to one man who said he'd been calling to someone who lives in the building and not being able to get through, so there is -- that is the big concern most people have here now. the firefighters are still pouring water on this blaze, attacking it from numerous directions, from numerous fronts, and from the best vantage point that we can get, it appears that the fire is still burning, that there is still thick, white smoke rising up into the air from the scene of this explosion and building

collapse. you can see from where i am right now, just a big gap between two structures that are both about four or five stories tall, and some of the neighbors say that they don't think there was a commercial store or business on the ground floor. they think that building looks for the most part, apartments, homes where people live, and that's why they are very, very concerned about all this. i can see one side of the building, next to it that's been scorched. there appears to be debris on the roof of it. just a massive scene of devastation here. really unimaginable, and again, a very densely populated urban neighborhood here in new york. this is not happening somewhere out in the suburbs. it's a densely populated area where there would have been a lot of people around on the streets. >> ron, we're going to interrupt you and let you do some more reporting, because in the meantime, we've been able to get on the phone congressman charlie

rangel, the dean of the new york congressional delegation and also this is his district, this is his area that he knows very well. congressman, thank you very much for joining us. first of all, what can you tell us about what you know about factually what happened here? >> we have information, the entire new york city congressional delegation is concerned about it. it's just reminiscent of 9/11 when we know something terrible has happened but we don't have enough facts in order to know why it happened or how it happened. this area is a very populated area because after 96th street, the metro north trains come from underground and become elevated, so we have these massive railroad tracks running right in this area where the explosion took place. and so i'm satisfied that we have the best fire and police

involved, but it makes getting in there very difficult from what i've heard. but i really feel like, you know, on the job and someone tells you your house is on fire, and as soon as the vote over down here in washington, i will be able to be -- to see what kind of help i can give these people. >> congressman, obviously, you know these areas very well and this is in the area of 116th and park. we've heard our folks on the scene and those who know new york city describe it as heavily residential area. there are some reports this may be a building of four or five stories. what else can you tell us about this immediate neighborhood in harlem, congressman? >> that is the center of what we call -- people that have come in

to enjoy the mainland and we have a market that's right at that site. and since the '30s, '40s, '50s, '6 '60s, it closed, reopened. any presidential candidate came to be there, and mayor laguardia opened up off of the street and gave them scones and they sell food and meat and fish and the fresh vegetables. it was wonderful economic site, even shopping bags in front. so it's an historic area for the new york city and certainly for

my district. and we have restored it, not with the same spirit that it had before. so that right there, 116th street and park avenue, and i don't know what, if any, damage it's done to the reopened market, but that whole area is not only heavily urban, but they are commercial and economic, i heard these two buildings did not contain commercial buildings, but there's no question that on every corner of 116th street and park, you have stores and businesses. >> and let me just ask you, finally, i know you have a lot to do, congressman, but do you have expectation you'll get informational update, whether from the mayor, from the fire chief? >> no question.

my entire staff is working with the police and the fire department. they know that i'm here in washington and my first of communication will notify you if we have any information for msnbc, so we'll be working on this together, because i'm learning a lot from the press, and i'm sharing with the press what information we get. >> charlie rangel, who represents harlem and is the dean of the new york congressional delegation and frequent guest on this show, thank you so much, congressman. good luck. i know it's going to be a long day for you and the folks in harlem. >> thank you, chris, thank you. >> thank you very much. obviously, we wish all the folks there the best on what is a heartbreaking and very difficult morning in that area of harlem. people running from the scene as firefighters, now we know 39

units and 168 members of the fire department of new york, they will tell you, the best trained, the most talented firefighters in the country, who daily see very difficult situations and have one on their hands right now at 116th and park avenue, partial collapse of a building, and some damage to the metro north tracks, the second busiest commuter rail service in the country. we'll take a break on "jansing and co.," be back with much more after this. so i deserve a small business credit card with amazing rewards. with the spark cash card from capital one, i get 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. i break my back around here. finally someone's recognizing me with unlimited rewards! meetings start at 11, cindy. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one. choose 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? i need your timesheets, larry! hey kevin...still eating chalk for hearburn? yea. try alka seltzer fruit chews.

they work fast on heart burn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. alka-seltzer fruit chews. enjoy the relief!

♪

♪ [ female announcer ] with five perfectly sweetened whole grains... you can't help but see the good. like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. see how much you could save with allstate. are you in good hands? this is the scene in harlem, new york, where there has been an explosion and a partial building collapse, a fire and a heavy smoke condition, and we have a huge number of fdny responders on the scene right now. we started out with three units, we went up to four. we are now at 39 units responding, 168 members. they've established a perimeter. i cannot overstate how

remarkable it is when you have a chaotic situation like that, we've been into it for maybe just about an hour, and the amount that they've accomplished. this is a highly trained, a highly experienced group of men and women. if you are familiar with new york, from where i'm sitting at 30 rock, you might be familiar with other things in the area, sachs fifth avenue, st. patrick's cathedral. we're looking due north and a little to the east about 66 blocks from here and again over to the east. i want to bring in on the phone matthew washington. he is a chair of the community board, community board 11, in manhattan. thanks very much for joining us. this is your area, harlem. what can you tell us about what's going on there? >> yes. thank you for having me on. you know, awful situation to hear about in the morning, building collapse, fire, damage to a church, store, and also

some residents, as well. this has been an incredible effort by the fdny to address, and they are literally digging the building out, trying to find anyone who may be in there. we did see three people who were taken to local area hospital a little bit earlier, but this situation is still very delicate. the nypd, fdny and others are working feverishly to do everything possible to secure the area and protect the area and make sure as many people are taken out and brought to safety as possible. >> can you give us a sense, matthew, where's the nearest hospital? how far away from this scene? >> we have a hospital relatively close, metropolitan hospital that's also close. harlem hospital is accessible. there are area hospitals that people can be taken to

relatively quick time. these hospitals are extremely responsive, so they are being transported based on, i imagine, any injury that might be happening, determining what the best location is for them to go to, but they are working to address all these issues and get people to safety. it's been incredible. >> can you -- do you have a sense, matthew, of exactly what building this is? because we've gotten conflicting reports and looked at the google maps of the area based on addresses we're given, but do you know if this is purely residential or if the ground floor had some sort of business? >> yes, the ground floor had a piano store, above it was residential, that was a commercial space, the adjacent building was a church, which is severely damaged. the location is the west side of park avenue between 116th street and 117th street. it's a block south of the community board office.

>> and let me ask you, finally, you know, obviously, there's a lot of concern. we heard the initial reports, not surprisingly, of people running away from the scene. i should tell people, because often the first thing that comes to mind when you hear an explosion related to new york city, could this be some sort of terror, and there is a joint terrorism task force that routinely responds in these situations, but there's absolutely no indication that this is any sort of terror activity. it sounds like it was an explosion. do you know if there was any work being done on the building or anything to indicate what might have caused this, matthew? >> that's unclear. i'm unaware of work being done at the time, and we hadn't heard of any issues with this building. absolutely, we've not heard any reports of potential terror. it's not something that i anticipate, but everything is being investigated at this time.

but i wasn't aware of work going on on the building, not sure what happened, what triggered this event, but as we find out, we'll certainly work to address this and work to prevent this from happening in the future. >> matthew washington from the community board, he is the chairman there in harlem. again, thank you so much for taking the time away from what will be a very busy day for you to give us additional information, and so it turns out what we have reported and what we had seen earlier about that area is that on the ground floor, there is this piano store, next to it, a spanish christian church. neither of which would have been heavily populated this time of day. it's not as if it was the bottom of an office building where there might have been huge numbers of people, and again, at least the initial indications that perhaps three or four people taken to area hospitals. there are a lot of facilities in new york city. you're never very far away from a medical facility, so that is the good news, but the concern,

obviously, who might have been in that collapsed building at the hour of day when this collapsed before 10:00 in the morning. we'll take a break, be back with more on "jansing and co." after this. your first grasp, your first smile... we were there. your first roll, your first friend, we were there too. and swaddlers blanket-like softness, that you've loved since day one, is now available through size 5, for many more firsts to come. ♪ wishing you love, sleep & play. pampers. my sinuses are acting up and i've got this runny nose. i better take something. truth is, sudafed pe pressure and pain won't treat all of your symptoms. really? alka seltzer plus severe sinus fights your tough sinus symptoms plus your runny nose. oh what a relief it is [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon.

♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪ [ male announcer ] nothing says, "you're my #1 copilot," like a milk-bone biscuit. ♪ say it with milk-bone.

in the last minute or so we've gotten new information on this explosion, fire, and building collapse in harlem. first of all, it's now a five-alarm fire. we have more than 200 firefighters on the scene, and we are just learning from the fdny and local hospitals that at least at this point, there are 16 people who are injured, 12 minor injuries, four listed as more serious, harlem hospital telling wnbc, our local affiliate here, that one patient arrived there with serious trauma, but as you learned just before the break, this is an area that has several major hospitals, couple of trauma units, so they are well positioned for this. harlem hospital believes they may get more patients. joining me now on the phone is thomas, former new york city

fire commissioner. you know this area, you know the new york fire department. set the scene for me, if you will, what's happening on the ground, what are the priorities? >> well, i think the biggest concern for these guys at this point after an hour is the fact that they are unable to get in there and search. some of the reports are saying there's nobody in the building. if that's the case, that will make everybody really happy. they probably will not take that as verifying until they get in there themselves and check it out. that's the difficult part, all that debris that's come down, fire is still roaring underneath, water hasn't put the fire out, probably not getting to it, this being run off in different directions, so all that smoke, difficult for guys to even tunnel through from the back. i'm sure there's rescue units, collapsed units, special operations units are trying to figure out how to get in there if there's anybody that needs help, and if there is somebody in there, they are at a

desperate situation at this point because of the heat, water, toxic fumes, pressure of being underneath the collapse. this is just a very dire situation for anybody that might be in there. >> obviously, time is of the essence, and what does it tell you there are now more than 200 firefighters that have been dispatched to the scene? >> operating more than an hour, some of the guys are exhausted, they need relief, they are trying to not stop water or an attack from different directions, just to get new people, a new plan or new, you know, attempt to get in there. it's just a difficult, you know, the plan they have when they first arrived has got to be revised several times. knowing you get information that you can't always rely on, people tell you there's people trapped, people tell you nobody trapped, so you really have to assume for a long time there are people in there and that's the first priority at this point. >> and from people on the scene, do you think they have a sense now of what might have caused this, either from the type of

explosion, the extent of the damage it did? >> violent explosion, which makes you think a pent-up gas explosion. no reason to believe chemicals at this point to give you that kind of explosion. i would think they severed a gas line or maybe it was built up in the building and one of the areas that wasn't occupied, two buildings there, i think, so it was either a built-up gas explosion that ignited by a worker or hot water heater, gas unit, could be anything. once that pops like that, you get an enormous amount of debris, that's probably where the original injuries were from and started the fire and now the fire is roaring, building collapses, and here we are. >> let me ask you finally and very quickly, if i can, exactly what other units, obviously, we know the firefighters are there fighting the fire, the rescue units around the scene, as a matter of abundance of caution,

the antiterrorism unit there. who else would be there? >> well, i'm sure emergency management is there doing their thing, bringing in heavy equipment, it's probably already there. they are going to need it to move that stuff out of the area so the firefighters can continue searching. they want to get through as much of it as quickly as possible. if there is someone, maybe was lucky enough to be underneath at an angle where there's debris that is preventing them from being crushed or overcome with the fumes, so there's -- the biggest, i would think, of course all the city units are worried about shutting down water, gas, traffic at the amtrak, but the most important people at this point i would think are the firefighters trying to get in there first, of course, and emergency management is trying to get as much help as they can with all the different things that they coordinate. >> former fire chief, your information has been invaluable. thank you so much. we appreciate it. that's going to do it for me, i'm chris jansing.

tamron hall picks up our ongoing coverage. tamron? >> thanks very much, chris. we begin with the breaking news, fire still burning in the harlem section of upper manhattan with all the markings of an explosion. these are live images coming into msnbc. at least a portion of the large building completely collapsed there. debris has been scattered along nearby train tracks and what is now a five-alarm fire. nbc news has also learned that 16 people were taken to the hospital, four of them with what's being described as serious injuries. again, you're looking at two live vantage points of this scene that's been going on now for about an hour. joining me live on the phone is mitch abreu, who was working at a nearby barbershop when he heard the explosion. are you there? >> yes, i'm here. >> tell me what you're seeing right now. >> right now, a lot of police outside, k-9 units out here, i