NEW YORK – One person was killed and five others injured when a parking garage collapsed in Lower Manhattan Tuesday afternoon, authorities said. It happened shortly after 4 p. m.
at Ann Street near Nassau Street in the Financial District. Video from the scene showed multiple cars stacked on top of one another amid crumbled concrete. The second floor of the four-story structure at 57 Ann Street collapsed onto the first, according to the FDNY.
The exterior of the structure is still standing, but the front of the building façade has buckled and is in danger of collapse. Authorities said there were six workers in the building at the time of the collapse, and they have all been accounted for. One was killed, four hospitalized in stable condition, and the other refused medical attention.
“There was a worker that was trapped on the upper floors. He was conscious and alert and moving around calling us. He just couldn’t get down, and we were able to put firefighters up there in the building and take him out across the roof to another building and bring him down safely,” FDNY Chief of Fire Operations John Esposito said.
Our first responders rescued five of our fellow New Yorkers from the partial collapse of a parking garage on Ann Street between Nassau and William. They have been taken to the hospital. pic.
twitter. com/KQ2p2t5kDJ Emergency responders are conducting their operation from the outside of the building due to fears of a further collapse and the possible unsteadiness of the structure. ESU personnel and K9s are on the scene, along with some technology that has previously come under criticism – the so-called “digidog” and drones.
Mayor Eric Adams said the new technology played a vital role in the response . Due to an emergency response to a structural collapse, please avoid the area of Ann Street, between Nassau Street & William Street in lower Manhattan. pic.
twitter. com/V3KxNZGXbt “At this time, we only have one DOA,” Adams said. “I do want to point out that, thank God, we had the robotic dog that was able to go in the building.
This is ideally what we talk about – not sending a human being inside a building that was unstable. We were also able to use the technology of a drone to give a real visualization of what’s happening in this building. At this time this building is completely unstable and the chief – we do not want to send in someone until we can make sure the building is shored up.
But using the necessary technology we’re able to get a clear view of what’s happening inside the building, for the most part, and do whatever we can to see if there are any more victims. ” FDNY members are operating at the scene of a parking garage collapse. 1 person is confirmed dead and 5 others were transported.
Additional searches are underway. pic. twitter.
com/wiXQxUrfLy “This was an extremely dangerous operation for our firefighters. We responded to a call of a collapse in the building. We had firefighters inside the building conducting searches.
The building was continuing to collapse. We made the decision to remove all our people from the building. Our robotics unit happened to be nearby.
They were on scene very quickly. We deployed our robot dog into the building. They’re able to give us a video inside, and then we were able to fly our drones inside to conduct an assessment and conduct searches,” Esposito said.
“At this time, we believe that we have the workers that were in danger all accounted for, all out of the building. That structure is very unstable. ” Esposito said the concrete slab floor crushed cars inside when it collapsed.
“What we observed from the drone deployed, we observed that there are a four story building all the way pancaked, collapsed all the way to the cellar floor,” Acting Department of Buildings Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik said. The cause of the collapse was not yet known, and DOB personnel were checking neighboring buildings, he said. “At this time, I should mention also that there are some active violation on the building, dated back to 2003.
But in 2010, it was application filed, which not indicate that violation was corrected, but it was filed. There are some active permits on the building, one of them is related to electric work on the premises,” Vilenchik said. Building Collapse: Expect traffic delays & emergency personnel in area of Ann Street & Nassau Street, Manhattan.
Avoid the area. Multilingual & ASL Link: https://t. co/WgzTrHFgUi .
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said there was “no reason to believe” the incident was anything other than a structural collapse. Officials urged residents to avoid the area of Ann and Nassau Streets. Nearby Pace University announced two nearby buildings have been evacuated and all classes were canceled due to the collapse.
“Due to a partial collapse of a parking structure at 57 Ann Street near our New York City campus, we have evacuated two campus buildings at 33 Beekman Street (a residence hall) and 161 William Street (office and classroom space) and have cancelled all evening classes. Students have been moved to our Student Center at 1 Pace Plaza and we are making appropriate accommodations for residents until they can safely return to their rooms,” said Jerry McKinstry, spokesperson for Pace University. “We are working closely with building inspectors, city leaders, structural engineers, and the FDNY in assessing the structural safety of our buildings.
We remain in close communication with city officials and our community as the situation changes. ” UPDATE Tuesday, April 18: Please be advised, following the partial collapse of a building near our NYC Campus, all classes on the NYC Campus will be canceled. 33 Beekman and 161 William have been evacuated and accommodations are being made for our residential students.
Subway traffic was also disrupted. Several lines – the 2, 3, A, C, J, and Z trains were all running at slower speeds nearby due to the collapse. 2/3/A/C/J/Z trains are running at slower speeds near Fulton St while emergency teams respond to a building collapse on street level.
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From: newyorkcbslocal
URL: https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/lower-manhattan-parking-garage-collapse/
