An East Village rooftop party with between 30 and 40 college students turned frightening when a fellow reveler fell two floors when a stairwell collapsed. One partygoer said to the Post, "It was complete chaos. I heard a loud noise, and after that everyone started panicking. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life!" And it's believed the injured man had been "jumping" on the stairs before the collapse.
The FDNY received the call at 1:25 a.m. and says they found a male with trauma injuries after he fell "four half-landings" at 159 Second Avenue at 9th Street. Another partygoer, Martin Barshai, described to the Daily News, "We were having a party, just a bunch of people hanging out ... Some guy runs upstairs and says, 'Everyone quiet down, everyone shut the f--k up , someone might have died.'" According to the News, "Barshai said several partygoers rushed towards the exit, only to discover a gaping hole at the bottom of the first set of stairs from the roof." And it looked like this—incredibly scary and treacherous:
Via Daily News
The injured man was taken to Bellevue Hospital in "red tag" condition but he's in critical but stable condition now, with fractured ribs and broken ankle. The others left on the roof were evacuated by a FDNY Tower Ladder, with the firefighters using the bucket, which reaches about 95 feet, to bring partiers to the street level. Some climbed over the hole, entered an apartment and exited by fire escape.
Other residents in the building were not required to evacuated, and the Buildings Department deemed the situation safe. Over 12 FDNY unit and 60 firefighters responded, and firefighters ended up shoring up the stairwell. The FDNY left at 3:21 a.m.
WABC 7 reports that no one is allowed on the rooftop, "Officials say the building has a lot of college aged students in the building that do a lot of 'partying'."
