At least one dead, 5 injured in Manhattan parking structure collapse
A four-story parking structure collapsed in New York City's lower Manhattan near Pace University on Tuesday, killing at least one worker and injuring five others who were in the building, authorities said.
Emergency personnel deploying robotic devices after firefighters were pulled back from the fallen structure because of unstable conditions were checking the site for any further casualties, but authorities said they believed everyone who was in the building had been accounted for.
No foul play was suspected.
Video footage showed multiple cars stacked on top of one another amid crumpled slabs of concrete.
"I just saw the view of the collapse and from the rooftop, it looks like it's completely sunken in," said Abi Marin, who works in the area.
One person was pronounced dead on the scene, four more were taken to area hospitals for injuries and a sixth individual, who was hurt, declined medical treatment, said John Esposito, chief of fire operations for the New York City Fire Department.
He described all six as workers who were in the parking structure when it collapsed.
Esposito said firefighters ordered out of the structure had still been inside conducting searches as "the building was continuing to collapse."
He said robot devices were then deployed, marking the first time city firefighters had flown a drone aircraft into a fallen building to search.
Eyewitness captures aftermath of Manhattan parking collapse
An eyewitness photographed on Tuesday the aftermath of a parking structure collapse that left at least one dead and 5 injured in Lower Manhattan, New York.
Witness Andrew Shulman, who was at a meeting in a residential building next door, said he heard commotion and sirens before finding out about the collapse through social media. He went up the roof to see the wreckage.
According to Shulman, people that were at his meeting had cars inside the garage.
City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell told reporters they had no reason to believe it was anything other than a structural collapse.
Pace University, a private college campus whose students, faculty and staff use the parking structure, was evacuated as a precaution, authorities said.
The New York City Department of Buildings' online records showed that the structure, at the site of the collapse, had been cited for 45 violations, including 25 since 2003, many related to its elevators.
One 2003 filing noted that "ceiling slab cracks exist" as well as "defective concrete with exposed rear cracks." It said an $800 penalty had been paid for the violation.
Reuters
