Newsday from New York, New York • 21

WVAV, 10,000 Evacuated in LI Propane Blast 1 brave man averts disaster ens of smaller propane tanks that shot into the air like flaming meteors, landing on cars, houses and businesses, causing damage to some. There were big mushroom balls of flame, way up over the trees, said Elizabeth Newman, who watched the explosions from her 15th-floor office in the EAB Building, across the street from the Nassau Coliseum. It looked like an atomic explosion. It was amazing. Ive never seen anything like it.

One plant worker, Thurmond Neal, 55, of South Ozone Park, Queens, was in critical but stable condition last night at Nassau County Medical Center after suffering second-degree bums on his face, arms and the back of his thighs. The second worker, John Taormino, 24, of. Lake Ronkonkoma, L.I. was treated for first- and second-degree bums on his shoulders and released, a hospital spokesman said. By Carol Eisenberg and Stuart Vincent A aeries of explosions at a Long Island propane plant yesterday sent mushroom clouds spiraling into the noontime sky, rained fiery debris on the surrounding neighborhood and forced the evacuation of an estimated 10,000 people.

The blasts at All-Boro Compressed Gas Distributors in New Cassel, L.I.left two workers hurt, one critically, and caused long traffic and railroad delays. Service on the Long Island Rail Roads Main Line, which runs nearby, was suspended for more than two hours, affecting thousands of travelers. Although a temporary shelter was provided for those evacuated, fire officials had allowed most residents to return to their homes by early evening. Officials said a potentially larger di- saster was averted by the incredible of one Nassau County fire official, Carey Welt, who crawled on his hands and knees under a half-full, propane tank surrounded by flames to shut a gas valve that was venting propane and feeding the fire. Officials said the explosion might have been by a Bpark of static electricity.

He is one special man who demonstrated incredible bravery, Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta said of the efforts of Welt, an inspector for the county fire marshals office. Later, in an interview at the blast site. Welt said, There are reasonable risks you can take, and it was my esti mation that this was a reasonable risk and I could get out again. Had the tank blown, officials said, it would have been like a small atomic blast, Reveling homes and businesses for a quarter mile in every direction from the plant. Based on a preliminary investigation, officials said, the initial fire began shortly before noon while two workers at the propane distribution center were refilling a 20-gallon tank of the type used on backyard barbecue grills.

Despite their efforts to combat the blaze with, fire extinguishers, a nearby, storage tank exploded. Onlookers said the scene resembled a war zone: the initial blast ignited doz Photo by Ed Quinn Pamela Harwood, left, leads seminar for pre-kindergarten teachers at Martin Luther King High in Manhattan. Luxury Hotel Planned Atop way Theaters By Harry Berkowitz A developer yesterday proposed building a 52-story luxury hotel over parts of two landmark Broadway theaters a plan that would include demolition of a section of the Mark Hellinger Theater. Silverstein Properties is asking the Landmarks Preservation Commission to permit the demolition, and allow construction above parts of the Hellinger and Neil Simon Theaters for a 43 1-room hotel. The prqject on West 51st Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue is planned at a cost of about $150 million and would be the first to involve changes to a landmarked exterior of a theater.

It is also the latest entry in a hotel construction boom that has swept the West Side and is adding thousands of new and renovated rooms. To create an en-tranceway for the midblock hotel, a 26-foot-wide piece of the 200-foot front wall of the Hellinger would be demolished. The hotel also would stretch over the Neil Simon Theater on West 52nd Street but would not require any structural changes. The hotel would use the development rights from the theaters, both of which are about 60 years old and owned by the Neder lander Organization. Leasing of the air rights provides a steady income to the theaters during dark times, said Robert Nederlander, president of the theater group.

The deal involves initially paying Nederlander about $1 million a year, under a lease that could run up to 147 years, said Richard Rosan, senior vice president for development of Silverstein Properties. The prqject would involve altering the backstage area of the Hellinger and move some dressing rooms into the hotel. The Hellinger has been used for church services for Citys New Teacher Recruits Getting Survival Training iY, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1909 teachers like her are still being recruited in Puerto Rico to fill critical shortages there in bilingual special education, speech improvement and psychology. Gonzalez and her husband, Ismael Jiminez, also an experienced bilingual teacher in Puerto Rico, were among 150 teachers recruited this summer by the Board of Education in its new office in Hato Rey, outside of San Juan. She and her husband are also among 2,500 new teachers taking a four-day training course survival classes as one teacher's union official put it to give them information such as how to make sure they get paid, how to order supplies, how to organize the class day and how to assign homework.

This is the third year new teachers have been required to participate in a 10-day training program, which begins with the four-day pre-school session. Another 2,100 new teachers are expected to undergo the training next week, and of the approximately 4,500 new teachers will gather at the Felt Forum tomorrow to hear remarks by Schools Chancellor Bernard Mecklowitz, United Federation of Teachers By Sylvia Moreno Minerva Gonzalez starts work in two weeks, thousands of miles from her three-bedroom house in Aguada, Puerto Rico, with its ocean view and the tranquil school district in which she eqjqyed chatting with her uniformed students over lunch. On Sept 5, she reports to her new job in Manhattans District 6: overwhelmingly Dominican, so overcrowded that between 1,400 to 1,900 students will be bused out of the district to accommodate them in nearby schools and in the heart of one of the highest crime and drug trafficking neighborhoods in the city. New York does have its reputation, she admitted with a smile as die sat yesterday in a new teacher training class sponsored by the United Federation of Teachers and the Board of Education. "But its sort of like were needed here.

And I say children are children everywhere. If youre stem, disciplined, firm yet fair give a little love when its needed children will respond. Gonzalez, 32, whose salary of $29,000 a year is more than double what she earned in Puerto Rico, said the higher pay was the deciding factor. She is not only needed just by the city school system; bilingual 5 Please see HOTEL on Page 24 Please see TEACHERS on Page 28.