Self-absorbed jerks are treating the East Village gas explosion site like a tourist attraction, shooting grinning selfies even as rescuers search for life in the ruins where two bodies might still be buried.
Amid the backdrop of the devastation wrought by the explosion, fire and collapse of three buildings that injured 25 people, seven smiling women used a selfie stick late Friday to snap a cheery photo of themselves.
“Disgusting beyond words,” wrote a commenter on the local-news blog EV Grieve, which reposted the snap.
“Take a look at these people. Remember their faces,” wrote Diane DiDonato of Brooklyn on Facebook. “They don’t deserve those smiles. People are dying behind them.”
Others called it “disaster porn.”
“It’s heartless,”said Maurice Herz, 83, of the East Village.
“THIS IS A TRAGEDY. NOT A TOURIST ATTRACTION,” one frustrated neighbor wrote on a sign taped to a front door on nearby Seventh Street. “SHOW SOME RESPECT,” the sign demanded.
Other selfie-snappers included Christina Freundlich, whose LinkedIn profile lists her as a communications director for the Iowa Democratic Party. She posted a grinning photo of herself at the scene giving the peace sign.
“Too soon,” one follower chided.
Freundlich couldn’t be reached for comment Saturday.
East Villager Pablo Fernandez wore a green “Elf” shirt and red and white leggings as he posed for photos near a barricade before his bachelor party.
His pals shot a video of him dancing near the site.
“This is so we could send the pictures to our friends in Spain and say, ‘Look what we did,’ ” said a chum who declined to give his name.
Jeanie Slade’s disaster-site selfie showed her and a pal flashing open-mouthed grins and the hashtags “#beingtourists and “#weresocreepy.”
Asked about the selfie by The Post, Jeanie called it “satire.”
“My heart goes out to the people of New York, and this satire post was in poor taste,” she insisted. “My intention was to point out how many people post selfies in inappropriate times and it backfired.”
Meanwhile, the grim work continued at the site Saturday, as 60 firefighters extinguished the remaining flames amid the search for survivors.
Mayor Bill de Blasio visited an East Village firehouse to thank firefighters. He met with hero firefighter Michael Shepherd, who was off duty but joined the search for people trapped.
“Your dad is a real hero,” the mayor said to his son, Michael Patrick, 10.
“He’s my hero,” Shepherd told the mayor of his son.
The FDNY said it would take a week to go through the ruins, with first responders working around the clock while dogs sniff the debris.
“It’s going to be slow and arduous to dig out, search through the rubble,” FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.
Two people — Nicholas Figueroa, 23, of Harlem, and Moises Locon, 27, of Elmhurst, Queens — were still missing Saturday. Figueroa had been on a date with Theresa Galarza, 22, at the ground-floor Sushi Park restaurant and was last seen going to get the check. The blast sent her flying across the street. Locon had worked as a busboy at Sushi Park.
Meanwhile, Con Ed said that on Aug. 6, a meter reader discovered that the gas line in the sushi restaurant at 121 Second Ave. — which seven months later erupted in a fireball — had been tampered with.
Spokesman Allan Drury said the resulting leaks caused the utility to determine the situation was “hazardous’’ — so it cut off all gas to the building for some 10 days.
Additional reporting by Erin Calabrese, Natalie Musumeci and Aaron Feis
