Exclusive | Dem NY mayor whizzes off to Marthas Vineyard a day after firefighter, govt worker critically hurt in gas explosion at city site

Albany’s Dem mayor whizzed off to a ritzy Martha’s Vineyard junket the day after a local firefighter and another government worker had to be airlifted to the hospital following a massive explosion at a city facility.Critics raged that newly minted Mayor Dorcey Applyrs was more than 200 miles away in the posh sunny locale within 24 hours of Albany Fire Battalion Chief Wayne Brennan and 20-year city employee Anthony Hughes being flown in critical condition for emergency treatment after a gas pump at the city site exploded.Applyrs glammed it up in a snazzy red jumpsuit and aviator shades for the event, which was sponsored by the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, an industry group, according to photos posted to Instagram.“I think it’s a poor showing, particularly for a relatively new mayor, to not be there,” said state Sen.George Borrello (R-Chautauqua), a former county executive.Borrello said that when a blaze leveled part of the upstate village of Faulkner in 2017, he was immediately on scene and present.“I wasn’t going to leave at that moment,” he said.“You need to be there and be a leader.”It was only as the sun was setting amid the hobnobbing on Martha’s Vineyard that Applyrs’ office even released a statement extending her “deepest sympathies” for the two city employees.“Today our focus is on the two members of our city family who were injured,” the mayor said in the release.She finally addressed Albany media in a press conference three days after the incident, after dodging local reporters.“The mayor has been in contact with both victims’ families, and the safety of the city’s workforce remains her top priority,” mayoral rep Zipporah Hommel told The Post, saying Applyrs went to the scene immediately after the incident and was in “consistent communication” with city officials.“Mayor Applyrs joined her fellow mayors to shed light on the economic burden local municipalities have been forced to bear in the midst of ...