Brooklyn building collapse kills one and leaves four critically injured
Firefighters searched the wreckage of a three-storey building beside an excavation site in Brooklyn after a collapse killed one person and sent 10 others to hospitals.
By Khalid Khalil ·
One person died and four others were critically injured when a three-storey building collapsed beside a construction site in Brooklyn on Wednesday, November 11. The collapse trapped people under the wreckage and left bricks and wood piled in a pit that was being excavated next to the building.
The New York City Fire Department said four people were taken to a hospital in critical condition, while six more were transported to hospitals with minor injuries. Firefighters were dispatched to the scene in the borough's Flatbush section at about 4 p.m. and searched through the debris for people caught beneath it.
Footage from news helicopters showed dozens of firefighters working across the wreckage. Several gathered around a particular spot, where they appeared to cut into the debris with a saw. The aerial footage also captured rescuers pulling at least one person from the rubble and carrying that person away on a stretcher.
The collapsed structure had stood along the boundary of a lot being used for a construction project. A one-storey building on that lot had previously been demolished, and excavation was underway at the site. When the neighbouring three-storey building fell, its bricks and wooden material spilled into and filled the construction pit.
An adjoining building that had shared a wall with the fallen structure was still standing after the collapse, although one of its walls had been torn away. The damage left rooms open to view from outside. Among the exposed spaces were a bedroom and closets with clothing still inside, visible beside the wreckage where firefighters continued their search.
Rescuers worked through the debris by hand, lifting and throwing aside pieces of rubble as a drone hovered above the site. Dogs were also brought into the search to sniff for survivors. The operation continued as daylight faded, with firefighters using flashlights to light the sections of wreckage they were examining.
Phone and email messages requesting comment were left for the architect, the property owner and the general contractor identified in city records as being connected to the construction project. The search footage showed firefighters continuing to work among the fallen materials beside the damaged adjoining building.
