Women Sustain “Scratches” in NYC Explosion, File $40 Million Lawsuit

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A gas explosion that leveled a building in New York City’s East Village killed two people and left 22 other people injured.

As local resident Jeremiah Moss told the New York Post, people “lost their lives, lost their homes, their families, their pets, all of their belongings. People who aren’t going to be able to have a home after this.”

But those people, Moss points out, don’t include two East Village women who filed a $40 million lawsuit over the blast, despite their building reopening days after the blast and claiming only minimal injuries.

Lucie Bauermeister, age 23, and Anna Ramatowska, age 26, filed the suit in Bronx Supreme Court, claiming they were “severely injured, both physically and mentally.”

But the New York Post reports that “Ramatowska said she got “like, five or six scratches’ when she went outside to inspect the blast site. Bauermeister didn’t suffer any physical injuries — but did say she is seeing a $175-an-hour psychologist to deal with the trauma.”

Many local residents are incensed at the lawsuit. Matt Ninneman, who lives a block from the explosion, told the Post: “It sounds like someone who’s been looking for an excuse for a long time to make some cash and found it.”

The blowback against the lawsuit has even resulted in an online crowd-funding campaign to “raise money to buy two one-way bus tickets out of the Big Apple for the ‘heartless’” women who filed the lawsuit.

Titled, “Evict Fire Victim Bilkers from NYC”, the crowd funding campaign lists as its goal to “bring attention to their personal plight, their awful nature, and implore the unproductive wastes of space to please leave New York City and NEVER COME BACK.”

What do you think: Is the “beach babies'” lawsuit legitimate, or are New Yorkers justified in their anger?