The New York City Fire Department said Wednesday that one person was killed and at least ten others were injured when a three-story Brooklyn building collapsed into an adjoining construction site.
Firefighters got the first 911 call at 4:01 p.m. and worked in debris in a construction pit in the borough’s Flatbush neighborhood, ABC News reported. Fire officials were still trying to account for every worker on the job site.
The city’s Department of Buildings (DOB) said its inspectors were dispatched to examine the surrounding block. Inspectors are “assisting with recovery operations and conducting structural stability inspections of nearby buildings,” the agency said.
Firefighters pronounced one person dead at the scene. One victim was carried out with CPR in progress, and crews were still working to reach two more people at press time, amNewYork reported. Four of the injured were in critical condition, according to the fire department.
City inspectors had flagged problems at the project next door months earlier. In May, the buildings department recorded that work had continued while a stop work order was in effect, that neighboring properties lacked proper overhead protection, and that the work did not conform to approved construction drawings, Spectrum News NY1 reported. City records identify the collapsed structure as a three-story, mixed-use building on Flatbush Avenue with four residential units.
The same site drew a violation in April after inspectors said an entire building there had been torn down despite a city order halting all demolition work, CBS New York reported. PIX11, citing city records, identified the citation as a Class 1 violation and reported that N Tech Design of America, the demolition firm working at the neighboring site, allegedly demolished a one-story building while the order was active.
It was not immediately clear whether the collapse was connected to the demolition next door, and the buildings department is investigating.
A Bronx apartment complex Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) visited in January, when he introduced his housing commissioner, carried 194 open housing-code violations, 88 of them rated immediately hazardous.
In July, two columns buckled inside a 37-story, office-to-residential conversion in Midtown Manhattan, the former Pfizer headquarters, and seven surrounding buildings were evacuated, including offices, hotels, and schools. Public records showed a history of safety violations and fines at the property, Fox 5 NY reported.
The mayor signed the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act on Tuesday, a measure affecting roughly 2,100 properties. He claimed in August that none of the 180 inspections carried out after the Midtown incident turned up an immediate threat to the public, though some ended in stop-work orders.
“The safety of New Yorkers is paramount,” Mamdani said at the time.
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