An entire corner wall of a seven-story building in the Bronx collapsed yesterday, leaving apartment units utterly destroyed and exposed. (See video below, posted by Rawsalerts.)
Before the New York building collapsed, one resident reported hearing a "loud boom," while another ran down the hallway, shouting, "Everybody get out! The building is coming down." Another resident who works as a school bus driver was looking for a place to park her bus outside the building when she heard a loud explosion. She then looked in her rear view mirror to see the building collapse.
Of course, as so often is the case, the building owner — a company called 1915 Realty — had been warned for years of the structure's safety, as reported by The New York Times, with one structural engineer in 2020 calling the building "unsafe" with "significant masonry damage throughout the facade."
The good news is, after hours of searching, firefighters have not yet found anybody under the debris. So far, only minor injuries have been reported.
From The New York Times:
There have been questions about the building's safety for years, according to city building records. The ground floor has several stores, including a market at the corner of West Burnside Avenue and Phelan Place.
Ms. Fana, the third-floor resident, said people had been complaining about the building's state of disrepair for years.
"People said this place is going to fall apart piece by piece," Ms. Fana said. "But no one imagined this."
Flor Jimimian, who owns J&G Multiservices, a tax preparation office on the ground floor, said that the collapse happened just moments after a major water leak inside the first-floor market. She said that within 20 seconds of her stepping outside the store to inspect the leak, the side of the building caved right in front of her. …
Just last month, the Department of Buildings issued a $2,400 fine to the building's owner for "deteriorated and broken mudsills" at the base of scaffolding that wrapped the property. The damage could affect the scaffolding's "structural stability causing a potential collapse," the fine read.
