At least six people were injured after the top of a burning crane collapsed and struck a nearby building before parts of it, along with 16 ton of concrete, plunged into the street from 45 stories early Wednesday morning in Manhattan.
The fire broke out around 7:3o a.m. on a crane that was working on a building under construction located on 10th Avenue and West 41st Street, ABC7 reported. The crane operator was not able to put out the fire and had to evacuate. He was uninjured during the process.
The fire started within the crane’s engine compartment, weakening the cable holding the concrete and causing it to give out. Two firefighters and four pedestrians sustained minor injuries.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said this could have been a much worse situation.
“Thanks to the rapid response and quick thinking of our firefighters and first responders, we were able to evacuate buildings and bring the fire that broke out on the crane under control,” Adams tweeted. “Lives were saved and our streets are protected thanks to them.”
Firefighters shot water down on the flames from another building. More than 2o0 first responders were on the scene, either assisting with the fire or clearing out nearby buildings.
A resident of the building that was scraped by the crane said his residence looks “mangled like Godzilla took it and crushed it in his hands.”
“I felt the building really tremor,” Eldrege Smith told NBC.
The New York Fire Department announced the fire was under control at 11:45 a.m., NBC News reported.
The building under construction is 54 stories high and was intended to be for mixed use, Department of Buildings Commissioner James Oddo said.
The Department of Buildings will review the incident.
The incident led to the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to alert it as “a five alarm fire, and advises “avoiding smoke exposure from structural fires by closing windows while indoors and reducing outdoor activity where smoke is present.”