Key facts
- The four-unit building, built in 1930, collapsed at the edge of an adjacent construction site, the Fire Department said.
- Construction workers were among the injured, according to local media reports.
- Dozens of firefighters and a search dog combed the rubble, removing debris by the bucketful.
- A neighboring building that shared a wall remained standing, but its wall was shorn off, exposing rooms inside.
- Messages seeking comment were left with the architect, property owner and general contractor listed in city records.
A three-story apartment building in Brooklyn's Flatbush section collapsed on November 11, killing at least one person and injuring at least 10 others, the New York City Fire Department said. The four-unit building, built in 1930, stood at the edge of a lot where a one-story building had been torn down for a construction project.
The Fire Department said it received a call about the full collapse just after 4 p.m. Eastern time (2100 GMT) on Wednesday. It had said four people were critically injured and six more sustained minor injuries before two people were rescued. Construction workers were among the injured, according to local media reports.
Dozens of firefighters and a search dog combed through the rubble, removing debris by the bucketful. Drone footage from local television station WABC showed a stove, a toilet and a door amid debris that had fallen into a pit at the adjacent construction site. The site was being excavated, and the fallen building filled the construction pit with bricks and wood.
Two and a half hours after the collapse, a person was pulled alive from the rubble, put on a stretcher and taken away in an ambulance, WABC footage showed. "I'm very happy, I'm very happy," a man who believed the person was his six-month-pregnant wife told a WABC reporter. Later, as flashlight beams bounced off strips of reflective tape on rescuers' dark coats, another person could be seen being pulled alive from the rubble.
A neighboring building that shared a wall with the collapsed structure remained standing, but its wall was shorn off, exposing rooms inside. Phone and email messages seeking comment were left with the architect, property owner and general contractor listed in city records as being associated with the construction project.