Liam StackEmma G. FitzsimmonsTroy Closson and Sharon Otterman
Rescue workers stopped searching the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in Brooklyn on Thursday, saying they had determined there were no more victims.
Eight people, including two children, were killed in the collapse.
Earlier Thursday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at least 18 people, including four firefighters, had been injured when the building collapsed on Wednesday afternoon. Rescuers spent almost 24 hours digging through the site, even as a downpour on Thursday left shin-high pools of water on the surrounding streets.
“This has been a devastating evening and morning for our city,” Mr. Mamdani said. “We are mourning too many people who we love.”
Mr. Mamdani said the rescue effort had included hundreds of firefighters who worked through the night. He repeatedly praised the Fire Department’s response, saying the department had arrived at the scene “within one minute” after receiving the emergency call.
The collapsed building was adjacent to a construction site, where excavation had been ongoing.
Mr. Mamdani pledged “a full and thorough” investigation into the collapse, and said the Department of Buildings was “commencing sweeps” of roughly 100 other sites across the city that were “associated” with “five entities” that had ties to the construction site, he said.
He said that he was “incredibly troubled” by reports that construction continued at the site even though an inspection report showed there were cracks in the north facade of the collapsed building. He said the city would hold anyone responsible for unsafe conditions “fully accountable.”
The three-story building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue collapsed just after 4 p.m. on Wednesday. It fell into the gaping hole created by excavation at the construction site.
The collapsed building contained four apartments, with a commercial space on the ground floor, according to city information. Seven children were among those injured, officials said.
The rescue operation involved K-9 units, drones, helicopters and fire trucks alongside excavation machinery. The wall of an adjacent building was torn off by the collapse, leaving a staircase, a pink bedroom and closets filled with clothing exposed to the elements.
The Department of Buildings said the developers of the construction site adjacent to the collapsed building had an active permit for excavation and foundation work on the lot. The city’s buildings commissioner, Ahmed Tigani, told reporters that workers had been excavating it at the time of the collapse. A full stop-work order has been issued for the site.
Leanor Yupa waited at the site for news of her 22-year-old son, Gabriel Siguencia, an Ecuadorean immigrant who had started working as a carpenter there two weeks ago. She fell to her knees, screaming, when she learned he was among the dead.
Immigrant community: Mr. Mamdani said the people killed and injured in the collapse included immigrants from Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Trinidad and elsewhere.
Evacuations and street closures: Flatbush Avenue was closed from Clarendon Road to Bedford Avenue. Officials asked people to avoid the area. Vacate orders are in place on three nearby buildings: 1323, 1325, and 1327 Flatbush Avenues. Residents of other buildings who were temporarily displaced were allowed to return home, the mayor said.
The building: The collapsed apartment building had been home to a number of businesses over the decades, including a medical clothes store and a tax-services office, according to city records. Read more ›
Nearby site: A one-story building used to occupy the construction site next to the collapse. In March, the Department of Buildings ordered the property owner to halt demolition work after it found that there was inadequate protection for nearby properties. The order was fully lifted in August after the department found that the project team had corrected the violations.
Speaking at an aide center near the collapse, the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, said that he was concerned by early information that seemed to indicate that the construction next door contributed to the building’s collapse. “I’m angry at the things that I’m hearing about why this might have happened,” Williams said, after visiting aid workers and displaced residents.
“I’m trying my best not to speak out of turn until we get information, but learning that this building fell the way it fell — not straight down, on an angle — might indicate that it wasn’t supported the way it was supposed to.” He called for an analysis to see if construction projects in lower income neighborhoods in Brooklyn received the same scrutiny as projects in Manhattan.
As darkness fell on the scene, a yellow backhoe with an oversize jaw excavated loads of debris into an oversize red dumpster. It was one of four red dumpsters overflowing with splintered wood, twisted metal, and torn scraps of clothing. Uniformed firefighters stood beside ladder trucks in the glare of NYPD spotlights. Workers set up tall tents in expectation of more cold, soaking rain.
Vacate orders were in place on Thursday at buildings adjacent to site of the collapsed Brooklyn apartment building. Residents of other buildings who were temporarily displaced were allowed to return home, according to Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Rescue workers have finished scouring the scene of the collapse and have determined there are no more victims, according to officials. The site has now…
