Eight people, including two children, died in the Flatbush collapse. Officials are investigating the building and neighboring construction.
NEW YORK — The death toll from Wednesday’s building collapse in Flatbush, Brooklyn, rose to eight on Thursday, including two children, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said. Six people died at the scene and two more died at the hospital. Hundreds of firefighters kept digging through the rubble for anyone still trapped as a storm approached.
A three-story building at 1321 Flatbush Ave., with a store at street level and apartments above, collapsed around 4 p.m. Wednesday. Much of the debris fell into an open construction pit next door at 2625 Bedford Ave. Police said the building was occupied by residents, and the side of the adjacent building at 1323 Flatbush Ave. was torn off. Mamdani said 18 people were injured, including 14 civilians and four firefighters, with one in critical condition. Two of those killed were construction workers, and he said other workers who barely survived turned back to dig people out of the rubble. The fire commissioner said crews remain in the search-and-rescue phase and have not shifted to recovery.
The cause is under investigation. Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said workers had been excavating the adjacent lot earlier Wednesday. A developer is seeking approval for a nine-story building there, but the city has approved only a three-story project so far. City records show the Buildings Department ordered the contractor at that site to stop demolition work in March, then issued a violation in April after the work resumed. A department spokesperson said the violations were corrected and the stop-work order was lifted in May. Records also show a $2,500 fine in March for starting demolition without proper overhead protection for neighboring properties, though it was unclear whether that included the building that collapsed.
City housing records list 98 open violations at 1321 Flatbush Ave., ranging from bedbugs to leaks. The New York Daily News reported they included unsafe electrical wiring, defective doors and missing or malfunctioning smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. The building’s owner has held it since 1999. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said his office is examining allegations that the landlord may have been negligent.
Mamdani said five entities are tied to the construction site and to about 100 other sites across the city, and the Department of Buildings has begun sweeps of those locations. He said anyone found responsible would be held fully accountable. Vacate orders are in place at 1323, 1325 and 1327 Flatbush Ave., and Flatbush Avenue remains closed between Clarendon Road and Bedford Avenue. The Red Cross and the city’s Office of Emergency Management have opened a reception center for affected residents at the Flatbush YMCA, 1401 Flatbush Ave.
This report draws on Associated Press coverage as published by KY3, with details from CBS News New York, the New York Daily News, CNN, ABC7 New York, NBC New York, Gothamist and FOX 5 NY.