Two prima donnas who were subletting an apartment near the East Village blast site say they’re so freaked out that they’re fleeing the city — and are suing for $20 million each for their troubles.
Lucie Bauermeister, 23, and Anna Ramotowska, 26, are bolting for the South, where the self-described “beach babies” can clear their heads in the sun.
The former roomies are the first to file suit over the building explosion on their block.
Their suit, filed Monday in Bronx Supreme Court, claims they were “severely injured, both physically and mentally” — but neither looked worse for wear during a primped-up appearance on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York,” a day after the March 26 blast.
“Local celebs this morning on @GoodDayNY at #Fox5. Cool to be on TV but bummer my house burnt down,” Bauermeister wrote on Facebook later that morning.
Authorities said the women’s building at 129 Second Ave. sustained minimal damage and was reopened to tenants on March 28.
Bauermeister acknowledged she went back shortly after the blast, but said the “putrid” stink of smoke was so bad that she went to stay with her boyfriend, who serves in the military and is stationed in North Carolina.
She said she planned to move to Savannah, Ga., where she has friends and went on a job interview Monday afternoon.
“I needed to get out of New York,” she said by phone from Georgia.
“The whole experience has really rocked me, and also the cold is not great.”
Bauermeister, born in New Jersey but raised in Australia, called herself a “beach baby” at heart.
“I just prefer the South. It’s warmer, it’s nicer, people are friendlier,” she said.
Ramotowska said she has been crashing at a friend’s Chelsea apartment — after six nights of free hotel lodging — and was going to move back in with her parents, also down South.
“Because of everything that happened, I feel like I don’t have a home. I don’t feel comfortable,” she said.
“I just have anxiety, in all honesty. I feel like I need to get out and clear my mind.”
“My parents just moved to Florida, so I’m going to go down there and be a beach baby, basically.”
The women said they were in their third-floor sublet, changing for the gym, when the blast blew out the front of 121 Second Ave.
When they went outside to see what had happened, glass was flying, and Ramotowska said she got “like, five or six scratches” on the back of her left hand when she used it to protect her face.
The roomies ran back to grab their valuables, including Ramotowska’s pet Pomeranian, Darnell, and a fur coat that had belonged to Baumeister’s grandma.
Baumeister said she didn’t suffer any physical injuries, and Ramotowska said she treated her hand scratches with Neosporin she bought at a CVS.
“It’s nothing deep,” she said.
Baumeister said she couldn’t sleep and lost her appetite after the blast and started seeing a $175-an-hour psychologist who recommended at least six to eight more weeks of counseling.
“Then, depending on how I’m recovering, maybe less frequently,” she said.
Ramotowska said she hadn’t yet been to a shrink but has an appointment for Wednesday.
“You don’t really think that you have trauma and that you’re affected by it . . . but you have trauma,” she said.
In court papers, lawyer Robert Vilensky blames the blast on “potential illegal gas-line hookups.”
Defendants include Con Ed, 121 Second Ave. landlord Maria Hrynenko, contractor Dilber Kukic and Hyeonil Kim, owner of the destroyed Sushi Park eatery.
Con Ed declined to comment.
Kukic’s lawyer, Mark Bederow, said: “As a general matter, I caution against the exclusive use of unconfirmed media reports as the basis to state what caused this tragedy and who, if anyone, might be responsible for it.”
Hrynenko didn’t return a voice-mail message. There was no answer at Kim’s phone numbers.
Additional reporting by Kirstan Conley
