NEW YORK: At least one person was killed and five others were injured after a four-storey parking structure collapsed in New York City’s lower Manhattan on Tuesday.
After firefighters were moved back from the collapsed structure owing to unsafe conditions, emergency services used robotic devices to search for any additional casualties. Officials said that they believed all victims had been found. There was no suspicion of wrongdoing, Reuters said.
According to John Esposito, chief of fire operations for the New York City Fire Department, one person was pronounced dead on the spot, while four others were rushed to surrounding hospitals for injuries, and a sixth person who was harmed declined medical treatment.
All six were workers who were in the parking structure when it fell, according to him. Esposito.
He added that it was the first-time city firefighters had flown a drone aircraft into a collapsed building to conduct a search.
Authorities said Pace University, a private college institution whose students, instructors, and staff utilize the parking complex, was evacuated as a precaution.
According to online records from the New York City Department of Buildings, the structure at the site of the collapse had been ticketed for 45 violations, including 25 since 2003, all of which were linked to its elevators.
According to one 2003 petition, “ceiling slab cracks exist” and “defective concrete with exposed rear cracks.” It said that an $800 fine had been paid for the violation. According to eyewitnesses, the fall was sudden and unexpected.
Nguyen, 35, a resident of Chinatown and manager of the neighboring Kollective Klub, claimed it all happened so quickly. He stated that their shop is two buildings away from the parking garage.
People rushed inside, asking if they might seek refuge in their store. Sandy Imhoff, 78, who lives in an adjacent flat on the same street, said she evacuated her home with her two cats when the power of the collapse began to shudder.
