At least two people were killed and more than a dozen were injured on Wednesday afternoon when a three-story building collapsed in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York City officials said.
The collapse took place just after 4 p.m. near the intersection of Flatbush and Bedford avenues. The mixed-use building, which had apartments above ground-floor businesses, sat at the edge of a lot where a one-story building had been demolished for a construction project. According to the Associated Press, the site was being excavated when the building came down and filled the construction pit with bricks and wood. Residents and construction workers were trapped under the debris.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at least 10 people were taken to hospitals and four of them were in critical condition. Later reports from several New York outlets put the number of injured at 17 or more. Gothamist reported that seven children were among the injured. The FDNY said one firefighter was treated for minor injuries.
Mamdani visited the site and said first responders arrived one minute after the first emergency call.
More than 250 firefighters and emergency personnel took part in the rescue. Crews searched the rubble by hand, with power saws and with dogs, used a drone to locate victims, and continued working with flashlights after dark. About two and a half hours after the collapse, firefighters pulled a pregnant woman alive from the debris.
FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said the construction workers on the site had been “digging down” at the time. He also said, “We do not know how many people were missing overall.”
FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said, “The units are performing dangerous and heroic work.” She warned that the operation would be prolonged because the rubble is unstable and moving through it too quickly could put victims at greater risk.
A neighboring building that shared a wall with the collapsed structure remained standing, but the wall was sheared off, leaving bedrooms and closets exposed to the street.
Anderson Velez, a resident of the collapsed building, told the New York Post that he was at work when his wife called him from under the rubble, where she was trapped with their two children, ages 7 and 2. “She called me when the building collapsed while she was inside with rubble on top of her,” he said. He later learned that the children had been pulled out alive.
