A media executive distraught over problems with his wife tried to kill himself by cutting the gas line and blowing up his Upper West Side brownstone, a police official said Friday.
Charles Welsh, a 52-year-old married father, was alone in his West 94th Street home near Amsterdam Avenue when he caused a small explosion around 11 p.m. Thursday
He deliberately cut the feed to cause the fireball because he was torn up about the problems he was having with his wife, the official said.
Welsh’s wife and children left for France on Thursday morning, said neighbor Fred Valle, who was just winding down for the night when he felt the explosion rock his home.
“I started watching the news before going to bed. I sit down and then suddenly I see this whole puff of smoke and I thought it was fire,” Valle recalled of the late-night incident. “But it was an explosion. The whole building shook.”
Welsh is the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of financial news service Mergermarket.com, an international database that reports on mergers and acquisitions. The database sold in 2006 for $254 million, according to news reports at that time.
He is the founder and current global editor of IIICorp, a similar news service.
He purchased the four-story building for about $4.7 million in 2008, property records show.
He was taken to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s with minor leg injuries.
He was charged with arson and is awaiting arraignment in Manhattan court. Source
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