As reported by AP, the incident exposed apartments resembling a stack of shelves and partially buried a convenience store under bricks and wood.

As of early evening, there were no reported injuries, and city officials confirmed that the occupants of the ground floor shop had safely evacuated, according to the proprietor, AP reported. Despite this, firefighters employed buckets, power tools, and heavy equipment to carefully sift through the wreckage, while authorities closely monitored the sections of the building that were still intact.

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“Our main objective is to get to the bottom of that pile,” Fire Department Chief of Department John Hodgens said at a news conference, adding, “We’ll be here until it’s down to the street level, just to make sure if there are any victims under there, hopefully, we can get to them in time.”

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Authorities are investigating the cause of the collapse at a 1927 building that was undergoing facade repairs. Julian Rodriguez, an employee at a nearby deli, reported being behind the counter when he heard people screaming about the building collapse.

“When I went outside, all you could see is the debris and a smoke cloud in the street,” said Rodriguez, 22. “And you could see inside the structure: people’s beds, their doors, closets, lights, everything. It was really scary.”

A section of the building displayed walls sheared off and floors sagging, accompanied by a pile of debris spilling onto the street. Inside one apartment, a bed was positioned just feet away from the edge of a floor that extended into the air due to the collapse, while in another unit, artwork hanging on the wall was exposed. Elsewhere, an armchair rested on a floor that tilted down precariously, resembling the top of a collapsed box.

Firefighters removed debris in buckets, employed circular saws to navigate the collapsed scaffolding, and utilized an excavator to claw through the rubble.

“We’re tunneling into that debris pile as safely as we can,” Hodgens said. “Firefighters right now are in a dangerous position. We don’t know what caused this corner of this building to come down. We don’t know if any of it is going to come down.”

According to records from the Buildings Department, a 2020 inspection revealed cracked bricks and loose, damaged mortar on the building’s facade. Commissioner Jimmy Oddo stated on Monday that although work had commenced, he did not believe any workers were present at the time of the collapse, AP reported.

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“I want to be clear: Unsafe facade conditions is not the same as an unsafe building,” he said at the news conference. “While the property had seven unresolved violations, they weren’t structural,” he said.

Oddo mentioned that officials would closely examine drawings related to the collapsed section, which were submitted as part of the permitting process for the facade work. Attempts to reach the building’s owner at a potential phone number went unanswered.

Footage from security cameras, acquired by multiple news outlets, depicted individuals dispersing from the sidewalk as debris cascaded down in a swirling cloud of dust.

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Building resident Norma Arias told The New York Times she had just returned from buying cilantro at the bodega when she heard a loud boom in her first-floor apartment and heard a neighbour scream, “Everybody get out. The building is coming down.”

“I almost died in that collapse,” Arias told the newspaper.

According to records from the Buildings Department, the building comprises nearly 50 apartments. Residents were being guided to a nearby school for assistance, and the city arranged buses near the building to serve as a warm shelter.

(With inputs from AP)

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Published: 12 Dec 2023, 07:40 AM IST