A multi-story building partially collapsed in New York
The incident occurred in the Bronx on December 11. The corner of a residential building built in 1915 suddenly began to collapse. According to eyewitnesses, some kind of repair work was being carried out near the house, and the condition of the building itself had long been cause for concern.
The corner of a building on the corner of West Burnside Avenue and Phelan Place in Morris Heights collapsed around 3:30 pm yesterday. It is known that the building contains six commercial businesses and dozens of residential apartments, CBS News NY reports.
According to eyewitness Alice Gainer, large slabs suddenly began to fall off the house:
“We see this building thing starting to crack. There were two guys building something. We see large rocks starting to fall. And then everything just collapsed, in about a second,” he says.
The moment of the collapse was caught on camera. In the footage, several people can be seen rushing away after part of the house falls.
Many of the people living in this house managed to jump out before the corner of the building began to fall. The owner of the liquor store on the ground floor said he ran out of the store just in time.
"We heard a crash and were able to leave the room. That's when everything collapsed," says Jason Castillo.
Soon after the incident, photos and videos of the collapsed house began to appear on social networks. They show that the building received serious damage: the integrity of the ceilings and walls of all six floors was damaged.
Rescuers arrived at the building. The clearing of the rubble has begun.
According to American media, no people were found under the rubble, which can be considered a real success under the circumstances.
The cause of the collapse was not yet known, but officials said the condition of the building left much to be desired. The report, which was provided to the Department of Buildings in 2021, said that there were small cracks in the walls and foundation of the house, as well as crumbled cement between the bricks in the masonry.
It is learned that permits were issued on Monday to build a sidewalk near the intersection. The permits covered the replacement of the sidewalk and the use of construction equipment, including an excavator. And although according to documents, construction work had not yet been carried out on the day of the collapse, eyewitnesses claim that something had already been done to the sidewalk. The created commission of experts will have to figure out who was to blame for the emergency.
