1 person killed, five injured in NYC parking garage collapse
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1 person killed, five injured in NYC parking garage collapse

Sep 29, 2023

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One person was killed and multiple others trapped Tuesday after a parking garage collapsed in Lower Manhattan, officials said.

Shocking footage from the scene at 57 Ann St. shows multiple cars on top of the concave roof as a woman is heard screaming, "Get out!"

"At this time the building is completely unstable," Mayor Eric Adams said during a press conference at the scene.

One victim was carried away on a stretcher as dozens of SUVs slid into the gaping hole in the roof that precipitated the collapse.

Five other people were hurt. Four were taken to the hospital and one refused medical attention.

All of the injured had been working inside the building when it collapsed.

Slabs of concrete plummeted through a lounge area for garage employees, a source said.

"There was a worker who was trapped on the upper floor. He was conscious and alert and moving around calling us," said John Esposito, the FDNY chief of operations.

"He just couldn't get down. We were able to put firefighters up there in the building to take him down across the roof of another building."

Officials believe all workers are accounted for, but are continuing to investigate.

"We’re continuing to do searches. There are some cars in there that are crushed. We’re trying to see if we can get up close to make sure there's nobody in those cars," Esposito added.

The building had active violations dating back to 2003, NYC Department of Buildings Acting Commissioner Kaz Vilenchik said.

There were also active permits on the building, one of which was related to electrical work, but the building was not under construction.

DOB records show there are four open violations against the building owners, all of which are related to construction.

One violation, issued in November 2003, was labeled "hazardous."

Inspectors found concrete "slab cracks" in the first-floor ceiling, missing concrete covering steel beams and defective concrete with "exposed rear cracks," according to the document.

Another open violation, issued in 2009, showed that a "loose piece of concrete in danger of falling" was found in multiple areas throughout the building, and that the owners failed to fix "rotten" defective fire stairs.

The collapse affected the entire four-story building, with some cars plummeting to the cellar.

The building continued crumbling as the FDNY initiated its search, forcing firefighters to evacuate the building.

The FDNY sent in drones to survey the garage as well as its Boston Dynamics robotic dog.

"Thank God we had the robotic dog that was able to go in the building. This is ideally what we talk about not sending a human being inside a building as unstable," Adams said.

The New York City Sheriff's Office uses the deck to park its cars while working at the Manhattan office.

"We accounted for all our personnel," Sheriff Anthony Miranda told The Post, adding that his office had four cars parked there.

A 22-year-old who works next door, but declined to give their name, said the collapse "came out of nowhere."

🚨#BREAKING: Parking garage collapse in downtown Manhattan #BreakingNews pic.twitter.com/GPuukTbXM2

"We heard a loud noise and we knew it wasn't safe," they said. "We looked down from the window and saw a lot of smoke coming so we figured something went down but we obviously don't know what it was. Everyone just started rushing."

"There wasn't as big of a shake as an earthquake, I would say. But it almost felt like a lift or an elevator just went down and collapsed."

Pace University, located near the collapse, canceled all its classes for the rest of the day.

Student Jadess Speller, 19, said he heard what sounded like an "explosion" while he was in class on the 14th floor of a nearby building.

"There was just a huge boom, and I was like, ‘What the hell was that?’ We saw smoke rising, heard a man screaming, a woman screaming. There was debris and we saw cars piled on top of each other."