At least three people died and 17 others were injured in the collapse of a residential building yesterday, Wednesday, November 11, in the Flatbush neighborhood, in Brooklyn. The three-storey building, located at number 1321 of Flatbush Avenue, collapsed shortly after 16:00, finishing partly inside an adjacent yard where excavation work was underway. The rescuers continued to search for survivors all night, while the authorities started an investigation to establish the causes of the accident.
The report of the victims was updated in the early hours of today, Thursday, November 12. According to information from the authorities and reported by ABC News, the dead are at least three. Among the wounded, four people are in critical condition, four have reported serious injuries but not such as to end their lives and nine have suffered minor injuries. Among the people involved are seven children. A firefighter also reported minor injuries during rescue operations.
The first call to the 911 emergency number arrived at 16:01. A team of firefighters nearby reached the site of the collapse in about a minute, immediately starting to extract the people trapped. Some 250 rescuers, including firefighters, health personnel and police officers, took part. The operations concentrated mainly in the large yard pit, where bricks, beams, floors and other elements of the structure were precipitated.
The building, built in 1930, housed four apartments on the upper floors and commercial premises on the ground floor. The transfer also affected the wall of a neighboring property, which remained standing but with some rooms completely exposed to the outside. The images taken from above show furniture, doors and parts of the domestic environments mixed with rubble, while rescuers try to identify the spaces in which other people might be trapped.
Research has been particularly complex for the instability of debris and the risk of further disposal. The firefighters used drones, cynophiles and specialized equipment, also carrying out manual removal of rubble. Around 18:30, over two hours after the collapse, a woman was extracted alive from a space drawn between the debris and transported in an ambulance. Other people were recovered during the evening.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who intervened on the spot along with those responsible for emergency services, described operations as particularly difficult for the presence of unstable structures and dangerous cavities under the rubble. The Fire Department Commissioner, Lillian Bonsignore, explained that each rescuer movement must be carefully coordinated to avoid compromising material stability. The authorities have not yet established with certainty how many people were located within the building or in the yard at the time of surrender.
One of the elements at the center of the survey is the presence of the adjacent yard, at number 2625 of Bedford Avenue. According to the Department of Buildings, at the time of collapse some workers were doing excavation work in the area intended for a new construction. The palace has fallen right towards the excavated ground, but the authorities have specified that it is not yet possible to establish a relationship of cause and effect between the works and the transfer of the structure.
The urban documents consulted by CBS New York show that a proposal for a nine-storey building with 64 apartments and commercial spaces was presented for the neighboring land. The commissioner of the Department of Buildings, Ahmed Tigani, made it clear that the approved project concerned a three-storey construction, while the higher one had not yet received definitive authorization.
The municipal archives also show that, in April 2026, an undertaking engaged in the demolition of the previous building on the ground had received a dispute for continuing the work despite an order of suspension. The violation is subsequently resolved.
The inspectors of the Department of Buildings are examining both the conditions of the collapsed building and those of the neighboring buildings, to verify the presence of additional structural risks. The authorities will have to ascertain whether the excavations were adequately protected and if all the necessary measures were taken to ensure the stability of the neighbouring buildings. According to the first journalistic checks on municipal registers, there were no building violations due to the collapsed property, but this data does not allow to exclude any structural problems.
The collapse caused the closure of several roads in the Flatbush area and forced some residents to temporarily abandon their homes. To assist the people involved and those unable to return to the houses a reception center was opened at the Flatbush YMCA.
Research operations continue today. The final number of victims and wounded could change in the coming hours, while the investigation of the causes of the collapse will require further technical checks and the examination of the documents relating to the work in the adjacent yard.
L’articolo Crolla a building in Brooklyn: at least three dead and 17 wounded, people are still looking among the rubble proviene da IlNewyorkese.
