What to Know
- A parking garage collapsed in lower Manhattan, killing one worker and injuring five others
- It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse, as inspectors and firefighters have not been able to get inside the building due to how unstable it was even through Tuesday night, officials said
- A look into the building violations associated with the garage — which has been there on Ann Street since 1957 — shows that most issues have been addressed over the decades, and the few that were still listed as open were quite old
One person died and multiple people were injured after a parking garage collapsed in Lower Manhattan Tuesday afternoon, FDNY officials said.
The collapse took place on Ann Street near Nassau Street around 4 p.m. when, according to senior FDNY officials, the second floor of a five-story parking garage collapsed into the first floor. Ultimately, the top floor would fall all the way down into the cellar in the pancake collapse.
Screams for help could be heard in a cellphone video taken by a witness. Officials confirmed one person -- a worker in the building -- died in the collapse.
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"As far as we can tell, so far there were six patients — six workers in the building — at the time of the collapse," FDNY Chief of Operations John Esposito said, with one worker who was trapped on one of the upper floors. The FDNY was able to evacuate that person across to the roof of another building, and he was taken away from there.
One worker died and four others were hospitalized, but were expected to recover, Esposito said. One of the victims could be seen taken away on a stretcher. Another worker refused medical attention at the scene.
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Esposito described the rescue operation as "extremely dangerous" due to the unstable building, and firefighters who had initially entered the building were forced to retreat as a result of the risk the instability posed. The department sent a newly added NYPD robotic dog (known as Digidog) into the building to analyze the scene and make sure no one else was inside without putting in jeopardy the safety of first responders. Drones were also being used to get additional information from the scene, according to Esposito.
Although Esposito said first responders believed everyone is accounted for, they will continue to search for any person possibly trapped in the crushed cars or amid the concrete rubble of the collapsed garage.
The garage is a location where the New York Sheriff's Department parks their vehicles, New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda told News 4 New York. All members of the department are accounted for.
Citizen App video taken from what appears to be a nearby building shows cars piled on top of each other as rubble is seen from the collapsed floor. One video from immediately after the collapse showed a car parked on the roof still moving back forth, showing just how unstable the building was immediately afterward.
The city's Department of Buildings was at the scene shortly after the collapse. The DOB commissioner said the structure was five stories tall — including the cellar and four stories above ground — and was used throughout as a parking garage.
According to the DOB, the building had active permits related to electrical work on the premise, though no recent active violations. The building obtained its certificate of occupancy in 1957, a certification that allowed for five or more cars to be on each floor — and footage from Tuesday's collapse showed well over five cars on each floor, with dozens seen in the collapsed rubble.
A look into the building violations associated with the garage shows that most have been addressed over the decades, and the few that were still listed as open were quite old. However, those violations do give a sense of deterioration over the years inside the building that dates back to 1925, especially as it relates to concrete.
The most recent violation, according to the city's building information system, shows a problem with improper exit doors in 2013. Inspectors in 2009 noted broken stairs and loose concrete in various locations.
Nearly 20 years ago, in 2003, DOB inspectors found more concrete defects in the stairs as well as a hazardous condition with cracks in the first floor ceiling, spalling concrete, missing concrete coverings on steel beams and defective concrete with exposed cracks, according to the city's online records. While the problems were nearly two decades old, records did not state whether they had not been addressed prior to the collapse.
The DOB commissioner said at the scene there was also an application for work on the building in 2010 for the automobile lift. He did not state why the open violations might have gone unaddressed if the permitted work went through, and the DOB is looking into the matter.
The Buildings Department inspected surrounding buildings as well to ensure they were structurally sound following the collapse. A photo from inside a neighboring building showed a hole that was punched in an adjoining wall right next to the garage, peering into the mess of cars, concrete and dust.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said that the structural collapse appeared to be a tragic accident and no criminality is suspected at this time.
Erasmo Guerra, a witness, said the garage is usually "super quiet...there is nothing happening over there except cars being parked."
"I heard this incredible noise around 4 o'clock this afternoon and I was wondering what that was so I went to the window and I just saw the top floor of this garage...just beginning to cave in and cars just falling into this pit," Guerra, who captured video of the harrowing ordeal, told News 4 New York. "I was just in shock. I heard people on the street just screaming and yelling for other people to get out."
The collapse prompted nearby Pace University to cancel classes, according to a tweet, and the school evacuated a residential building on Beekman Street as well as an academic building on William Street. The DOB later in the evening cleared students to return to the dorm on Beekman.
Video taken moments after the collapse showed students scrambling to exit a university building, rushing to leave classes as they were still unclear of what they had just heard and felt. Some described it as feeling like an earthquake, as students migrated over to the school's main building while waiting for word on what to do next.
"Everything in the room shook, the pens fell off the shelves, books flying everywhere," said student Jonathan McGraw.
Streets near the scene of the collapse were closed off as first responders continued surveilling the area. DOB personnel will continue the investigation into the cause of the collapse. The FDNY said that due to the extreme instability of the building, it is expected the investigation will be a prolonged operation.
The MTA said the collapse led to delays on several subway lines in the impacted area as well. The 2/3/A/C/J lines were running at slower speeds as a result of the collapse, the agency said.
