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[UPDATE] Harlem Building On 125th Street Collapses On City Bus

Portions of a two-story building at West 125th Street and 8th Avenue in Harlem have collapsed onto a city bus. Twitter user @eightyocho writes that the scene is "pandemonium," and we're receiving reports that two police officers may have been injured, and that the building was slated for demolition. Various agencies are staging at the scene, and the FDNY tells us that the call came in at 9:26 a.m. We'll update as more details become available.

[UPDATE / 10:07 a.m.] FDNY tells us there are seven confirmed injuries, two of them NYPD officers. None are considered critical, and all were transported to St. Luke's.

[UPDATE / 10:25 a.m.] The FDNY is now reporting that there are 17 injuries, not seven, and that none are life-threatening.

[UPDATE / 10:58 a.m.] The Times speaks to Sasha Chavkin, who was on the westbound BX15 at the time of the collapse. “We pulled into the stop and I heard a falling sound of something collapsing toward the back, and the back of the bus filled up with smoke,” he said. “People were running from the back and screaming. After about a minute the bus driver let everyone off the bus. “I talked to a kid in the back who said he thought he was going to die. He said rubble had fallen through the windows of the bus.”

It's still unclear how many of the injured were on the bus at the time, or if the two injured NYPD officers were responding to the incident or were hurt during the initial collapse. While the Times reports that 13 were injured, the FDNY confirmed that it is 17.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

Comments [rss]

  • Look on the bright side, at least it was a Harlem building that collapsed on 125th street. It would have been really awkward if it were say a Greenwich village building that collaped way up there.
  • Mayonnaise Hands
    Grammar collapses inside sentence.
  • Archie1954
    And the Republicans don't want to repair American infrastructure? I thought these kind of things only happened in India.
  • Peanut_Butter
    or in countries other than India, as well.
    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories...
  • Are you from 1954?
  • This is what happens when contractors use low paid non union labor to do demolition work.
  • But are the bicyclists okay? For the love of god who will think of the bicyclists!?!?!?
  • Theose
    I can see a shitty quality cellphone pic. But the Hipster haze? Really?
  • bjpsny
    Any connection to the water main break yesterday?  Break was at 106th, but apparently water was all the way up to 125th.
  • no lol
  • whoknewit
    And.....What if there was a bike lane there?
  • randomtransplant
    I hope whatever slumlord owned the building goes to jail for this. This should not have happened.
  • whatidsay
    It was going to happen one way or another...as the article clearly states, the building was slated for demolition.
  • Cat1982
    cue the lawsuits. Although these would be justified. You shouldn't have to walk down a city block worrying if a building is going to fall on you.
  • Peanut_Butter
    So what the f is your point, exactly?  lol
  • MattyGC
    So has anyone been killed? This is awful.
  • Dan
    Finally, some real pictures posted.  Did someone fix the flux capacitor?
  • Dallas Penn
    TWitter user @eightyocho is 88 Keys who produced the song No Church In The Wild for the Jay-Z Kanye album.  That dude gets around
  • coolcat9944
    WTF are they doing in Harlem? This isn't the first time a structure has fallen! http://www.dnainfo.com/2011082...
  • Sugarbop
    Ok. I notice the pic looks old and dingy. Wtf is an instagram? 'Splain please.
  • ennuipoet
    It's the retro-hipsterization app which takes a poorly framed, out of focus cell phone photo and makes it looks as though it were poorly framed out of focus 1970's era Polaroid.
  • pendejito
    Like the retro-hipster boomboxes sold at Urban Outfitters, with no tape decks, just an ipod plug.
  • Dan
    Your answer is better than mine.
  • Dan
    Iphone app that lets people do stupid filters.
  • randomtransplant
    I had to control-f all the way down here to understand.
  • Sugarbop
    Ahhh! Thanks Dan. You're the man!
  • wobblesmith
    this pictures is like art, bro.
  • jibbly
    Outta the way, peasants!  Comment of the Day coming through!
  • Dan
    I am really sick of people using those filters on pictures.  It is not cool or nostalgic get over yourself.
  • cr17
    Haters gonna hate, sepists gonna sepia.
  • Eightocho has some sort of evil plot devised that involves taking city buses back to the 70's via time travel and having them collide with buildings.

    Obviously, he is in cahoots with Abraham Beame
  • NaiDoug
    In 1970?
  • TheOkayestGeneration
    Why is Gothamist posting about this now, when the photo shows this obviously happened in 1977.
  • OK clearly you are retarded, this just happened this morning. Reading is fundamental.
  • Spirit of 76
    Do you have anything at all to add to the discussion except calling people names? You know you have serious problems when you have Pierce Inverarity, the new uber-troll of Gothamist, backing you up. This is the guy who laughed that people should have avoided the "cheap seats" in the Reno air crash. You may also want to read most of the comments here, so you can start insulting everybody. Reading is fundamental, indeed.
  • You're too smart to respond to people such as her/him.
  • Since reading is fundamental, you might want to check your own lack of comprehension, dipstick. I said that the cheap seats were the place to be, not the seats to be "avoided". And I wasn't laughing, you doofusdolt, I was being serious. With incidents like this and others similar to it (stage collapse at Sugarland concert, etc). seems to me that the cheap seats are the safest place to be.

    So when you go see the Vivian Girls next weekend, stand away from the stage, just to be safe. Those chicks have put on quite a few pounds.
  • You might be 83
  • Spirit of 76
    I don't think you're in any position to criticize others about their weight. And again, a couple of hundred feet doesn't make any difference to a plane traveling between 400 and 500mph. Not that I expect your senile, hateful mind to ever understand that.
  • yeah, 400 mph, you said that already, I got it. But it sure as hell made a lot of difference to those killed on the field. Like I said, sit  in the cheap seats.

    And while I may be senile, what does that say about your cognitive abilities when I routinely wipe the floor with your scrawny ass?
  • Spirit of 76
    At 400mph, a plane can cover 500 feet in less than a second. It was strictly the luck of the draw where it hit in the stands and only a complete and utter imbecile would think the Mustang couldn't have covered that distance. Are you really that incredibly stupid? No, wait, don't answer that. You obviously are, and proud to display it for all to see.
  • Complete and utter rubbish. Normally I wouldn't respond to idiotic nonsense like this, but on the odd chance that someone is reading this and believes the ignorant uninformed drivel you are spewing, I feel compelled to let them know what a jerk you are.

    ICAS has very strict rules governing the distance between crowds and the flightline at air shows. After the Ramstein disaster in '88 (at the time the worst airshow disaster in history), sweeping changes were made to the rules governing spectators at airshows. ALL of those who died at Ramstein were under the flightline. P-51 shows allow spectators closer than the jets involved at Ramstein for obvious reasons: they are lighter and more maneuvarable. There are also strict rules for which maneuvers can be performed over spectators on the flightline.

    After this latest disaster, I hope there will be stricter rules put in place like the ones already in place for jets and other heavy aircraft at airshows as a result of Ramstein. No spectactor should be under the flightline at any airshow, imho.

    If you are under the flightline , you are more likely to be killed or injured than those further away. It's a simple fact. ICAS recognizes that fact, airshow pilots recognize that fact, event organizers recognize that fact. The only moron who doesn't recognize that simple fact is you, ya twit.
  • Spirit of 76
    Oooo. Somebody learned how to use Google. I'm sure physics would respect whether you're directly under the flight line or not when an aircraft is out of control. Is this the same kind of amazing expertise that allowed you to instantly conclude that it was pilot error?
  • No google and  I'm no expert My brother was a commercial pilot for many years, so I asked him. Just an expert's seconhand opinion, though. Doesn't necessarily match up with some dipstick hipster.  And I remember the Ramstein disaster vividly(you probably had just missed being a stain on your mother's undies  around '88)


    Point is, I guess you know more than
    ICAS, airshow pilots, event organizers, etc. They all got it wrong. It's actually safer to be under the flightline. Let me buy you a front row seat to next year's Reno show, dumbass.
  • Spirit of 76
    Definitely not an expert, and obviously don't understand much of what your "brother" says, either, if you think a couple of hundred feet will keep you safe.

    Also, again with the namecalling and the baseless assumptions. Do you have Tourette Syndrome or are you simple incapable of writing anything without resorting to calling people fat, scrawny, young, hipster, dumbass, ugly, "homo" or any other insult? Haven't you learned anything in your decades on this Earth?
  • sleepswitheyesopen
    Its all so clear now. He only has one facebook friend...
  • lizzie_d
    *Sarcasm*
  • Spirit of 76
    It would have been neat if that was one of the old buses with the blue paint scheme instead of white, but those were retired many years ago. Throw in one of the royal blue NYPD cruisers and it could have been a time warp.
  • Your a jackass too...seriously? People were hurt in this incident. This isn't funny nor is it a joking matter.
  • In Spirit of 76's hipster doofus worldview, if a cyclist wasn't injured in this building collapse, then it didn't happen.
  • Elderta2
    Not sure which is the worst nightmare, being trapped on the bus or under the scaffold or the Instagram, but I personally am going with being trapped on the bus or under the scaffold.
  • jibbly
    Seriously, Instagram evil must be stopped.
  • Dirk
    Jesus H. Christ. Instagram.
  • publikhan
    haha i love the retro filter
  • schmeep
    *sigh* Instagram filters for the loss.  Very distracting.
  • Peanut_Butter
    I didn't know about that until reading this post.  I think I belong in the picture.
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