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At least two people were killed and 17 others injured Wednesday in Brooklyn when one building collapsed and a second building was significantly damaged, authorities said.
The collapse occurred just after 4 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday at a three-story building on Flatbush Avenue near Bedford Avenue in Flatbush.
The New York City Police Department said a building at 1321 Flatbush Ave. completely collapsed, while the side of an adjacent building at 1323 Flatbush Ave. was torn off in the process.
According to police, the building that fully collapsed was occupied by residents at the time. Photos and video from the scene showed the exposed interiors of stairwells and apartments in the neighboring building. The cause of the collapse is under investigation.
The site next to those two buildings was vacant and under construction, and multiple people from both the collapsed building and the construction site were trapped, officials said.
More than 250 firefighters and EMS personnel responded to the site. New York City Fire Department Chief of Department John Esposito said a fire company that was in the neighborhood arrived on the scene less than one minute after the collapse.
“They encountered people trapped in the adjacent building that was part of the collapse. They immediately took action and removed those people from danger,” Esposito said.
Two people were killed and at least 17 others were injured, including seven children, officials said. FDNY officials said that of the injured, four people were in critical condition and 13 people were in stable condition, including one firefighter with minor injuries.
Officials have not yet released the ages of the victims who were killed.
FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said investigators do not know how many people may still be in the collapse zone or how many people are missing.
“We know that we’re not finished here, and we will likely not be finished for quite some time,” Bonsignore said.
“We will be here for several days until this entire site is searched for all potential victims,” Esposito said.
Anyone who is unable to reach someone who many have been affected by the collapse is urged to call 311, or 212-639-9675 if you are outside New York City.
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Firefighters could be seen sifting through the rubble by hand and breaking through a collapsed wall to search underneath it. K-9 units were also canvassing the debris.
“This has been an incredibly challenging and fast-moving situation, with precarious wreckage to navigate and dangerous voids beneath the surface. This type of rescue is exactly what the FDNY trains for,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a press conference Wednesday evening.
CBS News New York cameras captured crews pulling one survivor from the rubble at around 6:15 p.m. A man on the scene said that the survivor was his pregnant wife.
“The units are performing dangerous and heroic work,” Bonsignore said.
Drivers were encouraged to avoid the area and should expect traffic delays and road closures, officials said. Flatbush Avenue was closed between Clarendon Road and Bedford Avenue.
The American Red Cross and New York City Emergency Management set up at reception center for displaced residents at the Flatbush YMCA. The Red Cross said they have registered eight adults and two children for assistance, so far.
The New York City Department of Buildings said its commissioner and investigators were sent to the site to assist with recovery operations and conduct structural stability inspections of nearby buildings.
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Meanwhile, city records show that a contractor was given a violation over activity at the vacant lot adjacent to the collapsed building, 2625 Bedford Ave. According to city records, the buildings department had issued a violation to a demolition contractor in April because inspectors said the building at that site had been demolished despite a city order to stop all demolition work. That violation is now listed as resolved, and the violation notice does not state why the city issued a stop work order in the first place.
DOB officials say plans had been approved for the construction of a three-story building at the site, and excavation work was happening prior to the collapse.
“When that happens at a construction site, when you’re actually digging down very deep into the ground next to an existing building, that can often present a lot of precarious problems of destabilizing an existing building, and if proper precautions aren’t taken, sometimes this is what happens,” said Glenn Corbett, an associate professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
It was unclear if that work had anything to do with Wednesday’s collapse.
The Brooklyn District Attorney says his office is working with the DOB and law enforcement to determine if any criminal conduct contributed to the collapse.
