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An apartment building collapses in Flatbush, Brooklyn, killing 8 and injuring 17. The city government is investigating excavation and construction violations at a nearby construction site. Search and rescue operations are underway at the site due to structural instability and worsening weather conditions.
brooklyn (brooklyn ) A three-story apartment building in Flatbush collapsed on the afternoon of the 11th, and the entire building fell into the excavation pit of the adjacent construction site. mayorMandani (Zohran Mamdani) said on the 12th that at least eight people died and 17 were injured in the accident. The injured included seven children and three firefighters. The search and rescue operation may last for at least three days. Department of Buildings (DOB) records show that the construction site was ordered to stop work in March this year due to lack of safety protection. In April, the operator continued to violate the order and was fined again. The collapsed building had 98 housing violations that were not corrected before the collapse. The Building Bureau has issued a widespread work stoppage order at the construction site and launched an investigation with law enforcement agencies.
The collapsed building was located at 1321 Flatbush Avenue, near the intersection of Bedford Avenue, and collapsed at 4:01 pm on the 11th. According to city government information, the building has four apartments, and the first floor is a commercial space. Over the past 10 years, it has added medical clothing stores, tax preparation services and other businesses. The incident occurred on Veterans Day and public schools were on holiday, resulting in several children being injured.
“Words cannot express such a huge loss. My thoughts are with the victims, the families, relatives and friends of the injured and all those who are mourning today,” Mandani said. The Municipal Building Bureau will work with law enforcement units to investigate the cause of the collapse. The city has not released the identities of the victims.
At the time of the incident, workers were excavating adjacent vacant land at 2625 Bedford Avenue in preparation for construction of a new building, said City Buildings Director Ahmed Tigani. The Building Bureau reported that the construction site has valid excavation and foundation work permits. A blanket stop-work order has been issued at the site and all construction permits have been suspended. Authorities will determine the cause of the accident and inspect the building and surrounding construction sites. On the morning of the 12th, dozens of Building Bureau personnel were on site to investigate and review relevant records and construction site conditions.
The fire department said a fire truck was passing through the intersection at the time of the incident and reached the spot in less than a minute. Firefighters initially saw dust and fog in the sky and thought there was a fire, but later discovered that the building had collapsed. Many people were trapped when rescue teams arrived. More than 250 firefighters and emergency medical personnel were deployed to the site, as well as search and rescue dogs, drones, helicopters, fire trucks and excavation equipment.
John Esposito, chief commander of the fire department, said that the search and rescue operation was very complex and time-consuming. Rescue workers had to crawl in and out of the collapsed structure and find the cracks one by one. He described the dust-covered search and rescue workers as “reminding me of search and rescue at the World Trade Center.” He also warned that a nearby building was in danger of collapsing on the evening of the 11th. Firefighters intentionally allowed a portion of the structure to collapse first. Although it was determined that the building would not collapse completely, several pieces might still fall one after another.
Additionally, Fire Chief Lillian Bonsignore said there is a possibility of a storm after the 12th. “We are very concerned about the rain.” Rain would turn debris into mud, greatly increasing the difficulty of search and rescue.
Nearby 1323 Flatbush Avenue was also affected, with an entire side wall torn off and clothing stored in stairs, bedrooms, and closets exposed. The city government is conducting structural safety inspections on nearby buildings.
City Building Bureau records show that the construction site development team had a record of illegal construction. Building Bureau spokesman Andrew Rudansky said that when the original single-storey building was demolished at the construction site in March this year, the contractor failed to install protective nets, protective sheds and other necessary safety measures to protect neighboring buildings. Therefore the Building Bureau issued an order to stop the work and imposed a fine. In April, inspectors found that the owner continued to demolish the building despite orders to stop work, and fines were reissued. After fixing relevant problems, the shutdown order was completely lifted in August.
Property records show the site is owned by a limited liability company associated with Robert Fishman and Judy Swimmer. In June of this year, Fishman sent a letter to a neighboring homeowner informing him that the vacant land would be excavated for the construction of a new apartment building. The phone number listed in the letter was the same as that of Berkoff Supply, an industrial hardware store he runs in Brooklyn. Fishman, Berkoff Supply employees and Swimmer did not respond to requests for comment.
According to architectural drawings submitted to the building bureau, the developer had originally planned to build a three-storey building in December last year. In September this year it proposed a nine-storey building. Tigani said that the new plan has not been approved yet, but the excavation work has been approved. According to NBC New York, the new project is a 56,000-square-foot mixed-use residential and commercial building. There are plans to build a supermarket on the first floor and the top eight floors are residential.
Structural drawings presented by LMW Engineering Group engineer Jiaming Wang call for massive excavation works supported by steel, timber and concrete to prevent the collapse of adjacent buildings; The excavation contractor must use vibration monitors to track vibrations, install crack meters on nearby buildings to monitor displacement, and conduct visual inspections and notifications under the supervision of specialized inspectors. Whether these measures are actually being implemented is unclear. Neither Wang nor MD Islam, a special inspector at RI Consulting Services in Queens, responded. The contractor responsible for the shoring work, Mordechai Weisbrod, owner of Townhouse Builders, which received the permit in September, did not respond to a request for comment.
The collapsed building belonged to the second owner, Olufemi Falade. City data shows there were 98 uncorrected housing violations before the building collapsed, including unsafe electrical wiring, inadequate water from the fire sprinkler system, missing smoke detectors, running water and bed bugs. Farad has a long record of poor building conditions. In 2006, he was sentenced to 12 days in jail by a judge due to violations such as rodent infestation and exposed wiring in another building. The property has been subject to tax lien auction at least five times since 2017 due to fees owed to the city. Farad did not respond to a request for comment.
