NYC Building Collapse

Posted on April 30, 2009

NYC Building Collapse: Crews Sift Through Rubble As Precaution

NEW YORK — A five-story building collapsed at a lower Manhattan construction site on Thursday, but fire officials said it appeared no one was inside.

Emergency crews with a dog were sifting through the building’s rubble and were going through a neighboring building as a precaution.

Lewis Largent, who lives directly across the street, was looking out the window at 6:15 a.m. when “the bricks started trickling off the top corner. I was thinking was it raining or something. Then within 10 seconds it just all came down like a wave or an avalanche.”

Inspectors with the Buildings Department were at the scene, about seven blocks north of the World Trade Center site.

It appeared the front half of the building was sheared off in the collapse, and interior floors were visible from the street. Mounds of bricks were on the ground, and pieces of wood were hanging from what remained of the structure. A car on the street was covered in rubble.

Building collapse at lower Manhattan construction site

A vacant five-story building collapsed in Lower Manhattan Thursday morning, flattening a car and showering debris in every direction.

Emergency crews – some using dogs – sifted through the rubble at Reade St. after the 6 a.m. accident. Officials haven’t reported any injuries.

“It was like 37 train cars coming right by your head,” said Nick Palmacci, 24, who lives nearby and was awakened by the booming collapse between Broadway and Church St.

Ed Ortiz, 39, works across the street at MacKenzie Doors.

“I just came out this door and I seen it crumbling from the top,” Ortiz said. “As the windows shattered it came straight down. It was crazy!”

Ortiz said the block was deserted at the time of the collapse, which probably saved lives.

“Thank God it was early,” he said. “By 8 o’clock somebody would have gotten hurt.”

Bricks were strewn about, a thick brown cloud of dust covered the block and tentacles of wood dangled from the building’s shell. The facade peeled away leaving the abandoned floors and stairways exposed.

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NYC Building Collapse