Dive Brief:
- A three-story building in Brooklyn, New York, collapsed into an adjacent construction site Wednesday afternoon. The incident in the Flatbush neighborhood killed at least eight people, The New York Times reported as of 10 a.m. Thursday, with at least 17 more injured.
- Multiple people from both the building and the construction site were trapped in rubble, said Lillian Bonsignore, commissioner of the Fire Department of New York, during a press conference at the site Wednesday night. The exact number of people who remain in the collapse zone is unknown, and the cause is under investigation, Bonsignore said.
- During the same press conference, New York City Building Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said crews were performing excavation work on the jobsite. When asked by a reporter about activity at the time of collapse, Tigani said, “Yes, they [the construction crews] were digging down.”
Dive Brief:
The DOB filed a stop-work order on Wednesday in response to “unsafe construction operations causing adjacent building (1321 Flatbush Avenue) to collapse.” Tigani said the construction site has an approved plan for a three-story building, with plans not yet approved to construct a nine-story structure.
Construction Dive reviewed permits filed earlier this year for new work on the jobsite at 2625 Bedford Ave. They list Robert Fischman of W6 Facility X as the owner and Cheng-Yi Lin Architecture as the architect of record. The proposed development would yield about 25,000 square feet, spread across residential, community facility and commercial space, per New York YIMBY.
The adjoining building that remains partially intact is an ongoing concern and a hazard, according to John Esposito, FDNY chief of department, and the primary caution going forward is a secondary collapse, he said during the Wednesday night press conference.
The DOB did not respond to Construction Dive’s request for more information by time of publication.
