NEW YORK A four-story building on Manhattan s Upper East Side collapsed into a pile of rubble today after a thunderous explosion that hurled fireballs skyward and left an upscale block littered with bricks, broken glass and splintered wood.

Authorities said the blast was caused by gas, and they were investigating whether it was the result of a suicide attempt by the building s owner, a doctor who was going through a bitter divorce. The doctor, Nicholas Bartha, 66, and a passer-by were severely hurt; at least 13 other people had minor injuries.

Bartha recently sent out a rambling e-mail to his wife in which he contemplated suicide, a police official with direct knowledge of the case told The Associated Press. The note read in part, You will be transformed from gold digger to ash and rubble digger. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The injured included five civilians and 10 firefighters. Bartha was pulled from the rubble after talking with authorities from his phone while buried in the wreckage, Fire Chief Nicholas Scoppetta said. Bartha and one passer-by suffered severe injuries; the others had minor injuries.

Bartha recently lost a $4 million judgment in the divorce case, and court records chronicle a nasty dispute that spanned five years.

In a petition filed this year, Cordula Bartha asked that deputies remove Nicholas Bartha from the residence. I have no doubt that (he) will ensconce himself in the marital residence and refuse to leave it after the auction is held. He has said many times that he intends to die in my house.

A message seeking comment from the lawyer for Nicholas Bartha was not immediately returned. Attorneys for 64-year-old Cordula Bartha issued a statement: Ms. Bartha cannot at this time withstand the additional burden of the media microscope on this personal tragedy. Ms. Bartha and her family are deeply saddened and terribly upset by today s occurrence.

Heavy black smoke rose high above the 19th-century building, just a few blocks from Central Park. Debris was strewn everywhere. Four of the injured were pedestrians, and some were found covered in blood on the street.

This could have been an even worse disaster than it already is, Scoppetta said.

Power company Con Edison said its crews had been responding to complaints from a gas customer at an adjacent building at the time of the blast.

Yaakov Kermaier, 36, a resident in a building next door, said he was outside when he heard a deafening boom. I saw the whole building explode in front of me.

Everybody started running, nobody knew what was coming next, he said. His nanny and newborn escaped from their next-door apartment unharmed.

The building housed two doctors offices. Authorities said a nurse who was supposed to open one of the offices arrived late, narrowly missing the explosion.

Bartha was apparently the only person who lived in the building, Scoppetta said.

Thad Milonas, 57, was operating a coffee cart across from the building when he said the ground shook and the building came down. He said he helped two bleeding women from the scene.

In a few seconds, finished, he said. The whole building collapsed.

TV host Larry King, who had been in a hotel room nearby, described the explosion to CNN as sounding like a bomb and feeling like an earthquake.

I ve never heard a sound like that, King said.

The building is an upscale neighborhood where the 2000 Census put the median home price at $1 million. On one corner of the street is the high-end Luca Luca clothing store, and across the street is the French retailer Hermes.

Read more in later editions of The Blade and toledoblade.com.

First Published July 10, 2006, 10:04 p.m.