A pair of excavators scooped up rubble Thursday where a three-story apartment building in Brooklyn collapsed at the edge of a construction site the day before, killing at least eight people, New York City’s mayor said.

Two of the people killed were children, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during a news conference Thursday.

Emergency workers spent the early morning peering into crevices and sifting through debris during a desperate search for survivors. At least 18 people were injured, including four firefighters, Mamdani said.

The building gave way Wednesday afternoon while construction workers were digging at a neighboring lot, a city official said. The cause was under investigation. The cause of the collapse was under investigation, but New York City’s buildings commissioner, Ahmed Tigani, noted that when the building fell, construction workers were excavating an empty lot next door for a new building.

Speaking as heavy rain drenched the area, Mamdani said the weather would hinder but not stop the search.

“Conditions will get more challenging today with the rain, but operations will continue,” he said.

New York Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said crews were still searching for survivors Thursday afternoon. “We have not shifted from rescue to recovery,” Bonsignore said. “We are still in the search-and-rescue phase.”

“There are no words for a loss of this magnitude,” Mamdani posted on Xl earlier Thursday. “My heart is with the families and loved ones of those we have lost, those who are injured and everyone grieving today.”

Scores of firefighters and police officers wielding pickaxes and power saws clambered over the rubble pile overnight, punching holes through the ruins to pull dust-covered people from beneath piles of twisted wood and brick. Rescuers used dogs to sniff for survivors.

Much of the rubble from the collapsed building — a mixed-use structure with apartments sitting atop ground-floor commercial space — sat in a huge pile inside the construction pit. Another building that shared a wall with the collapsed structure remained standing, but its wall was shorn off, exposing the rooms inside, including a bedroom and closets filled with clothing.

About 250 firefighters were working the scene, Mamdani said.

On Wednesday night, firefighters pulled a woman — alive and moving — out of a hole they had dug into the rubble pile, hoisting her up on a stretcher and rushing to a waiting ambulance. Additional people were pulled from beneath the pile as the night went on.

FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said the rescue teams were performing “dangerous and perilous” work. “Every move is choreographed,” she said.

Phone and email messages seeking comment were left Wednesday with the architect, property owner and general contractor listed in city records as being associated with the construction project.

One resident of the collapsed building, Anderson Velez, told the New York Post he was at work when his wife called and said she and their two kids, ages 7 and 2, were trapped in the wreckage.

“She called me when the building collapsed while she was inside with rubble on top of her. She was screaming for someone to help get my son out and then the call cut off,” he said.

Velez said he later learned that his family had been rescued.

The post Death toll rises to 8 in Brooklyn building collapse appeared first on MS NOW.

Author: Source Author

From MS Now.