Story highlights NYPD officers Dan Sendrowski and John Campanella responded to blast in Manhattan

They helped those who were injured amid the chaos

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New York (CNN) Dan Sendrowski and John Campanella were turning onto a busy Manhattan street in their patrol car when the explosion went off.

The New York Police Department officers didn't know what was going on, but they knew they needed to help. They raced toward the blast.

"The flash was really fast and then just a lot of smoke," Sendrowski, 34, said. "When we got to the corner there was a lot of people kind of just waving their arms and just kind of pointing down the block."

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They saw a mangled dumpster flung across 23rd Street and later learned it was launched by a device made of shrapnel and pressure-cooker bombs. Officials would eventually call the explosion an "act of terror."

Amid scorched trees, shattered glass and worries there could be more explosives in its wake, both officers quickly urged bystanders to leave the area.

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