Results tagged “building collapse”

Yesterday afternoon, the city evacuated 273 Mott Street in Little Italty (or Nolita) because a rather large crack emerged in the building's facade. The NY Post reports the crack was three inches wide at the top of the building, "The building, which has 15 residents, and a Japanese/Thai restaurant on its first floor and apartments above, has a 20-foot tall crack in its facade that seems to have grown since last year, a caller complained to the Buildings Department." The Department of Buildings had actually issued a complaint to the building's owner on Tuesday about the crack, but yesterday the FDNY and DOB were on the scene after complaints of the building shaking. On Sunday, a four-story building, which had a substantial crack in its exterior wall, in Brooklyn collapsed, perhaps partly due to the recent rain. And EV Grieve passed by 273 Mott, where one onlooker muttered, "This is what happens when it rains for 30 straight days."

Yesterday's complete collapse of a four-story building in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn was somewhat of a miracle: Only four people had minor injuries, while firefighters, who arrived after reports of falling bricks, were still standing outside 493 Myrtle Avenue right before the collapse. City Councilwoman Letitia James told the NY Times, "If any of the men had gone in, it would have been a Father’s Day disaster." A witness from the corner described the collapse to the Daily News, "It started coming from the side, like dust. Then ... the whole thing just fell. It fell like in layers, one, two, three."

A little before 2 p.m., a four-story building on Myrtle Avenue, between Hall and Ryerson Streets, collapsed in the Clinton Hill/Bed Stuy neighborhood. Vesper Bar & Lounge was on the first floor. It's considered a second-alarm "Major Emergency." Apparently the Fire Department has accounted for all people who were inside the building.

[UPDATE BELOW] Here's helicopter footage taken this morning following the collapse of a five-story building landmark building at 71 Reade Street between Church and Broadway. Channel 7 reports that first responders believe the mixed-use building to be vacant when it collapsed around 6:15 this morning, sending "debris and pieces of the building crashing onto parked cars and across Reade Street."

Dozens of children have died in Haiti after a school collapsed near Port-au-Prince, the nation's capital. The death toll is now reported to be over 80 and rapidly approaching 100 . The collapse took place around 10 a.m. yesterday morning in a school with more than 700 students of ages ranging from 10 to 20. A journalist with the Haiti Press Network reported that more than 200 students were still trapped in the rubble as of midnight last night and another 200 have been treated by medical staff in the area. However two of the three nearby hospitals have been shut down due to worker strikes.

One of the lingering conspiracy theories surrounding the attacks on September 11, 2001 is that 7 World Trade Center, which was not hit by a plane, was deliberately destroyed (here's one example of a conspiracy website), because no other steel building has collapsed simply due to fire before. But now a report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology says that the fire is the culprit.

There are some residual delays on Metro-North this morning after yesterday's East Harlem building collapse that led to the suspension of all service in and out of Grand Central. The trains' speed restrictions were lifted at 6:30 a.m. and there may be 5-10 delays.

A building collapse at 124th Street and Park Avenue has prompted the MTA to shut down all train service in and out of Grand Central Terminal. Metro-North's Dan Brucker told WCBS 880, "We don't know how long the closure will last. We have been told by the police not to have any trains run through the 125th Street station."