A lawyer for the owner of two of the buildings in Manhattan’s East Village that were destroyed by a deadly explosion last week tried to deflect blame away from the landlord on Wednesday and toward Consolidated Edison, the utility company that provided gas to the buildings.

The lawyer, Thomas M. Curtis, provided the first response on behalf of the landlord, Maria Hrynenko, since an explosion and fire reduced three buildings to rubble on March 26 and left two men dead. In a brief defense of Ms. Hrynenko during a phone interview, Mr. Curtis portrayed her as a caring landlord who “would not harm anybody intentionally.”

Mr. Curtis conceded that Ms. Hrynenko had received a warning of a possible gas leak from the manager of Sushi Park, a restaurant on the ground floor of 121 Second Avenue, one of the buildings that was destroyed. Rather than calling the utility company, Con Edison, or dialing 911, Ms. Hrynenko sent her son Michael and a contractor to check out the odor, Mr. Curtis said. Both men were injured in the blast.

“Maria would not have sent her son in there if she knew the building was going to explode,” he said. In hindsight, he added, “they should have called 911.”