Mamdani promises 100 probes at construction site after 8 killed in building collapse | Today’s news
(Bloomberg) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said city officials will begin cleaning up 100 construction sites after eight people died in the collapse of a three-story apartment building in Brooklyn.
The building collapsed shortly after 4pm on Wednesday, trapping people in the rubble as rescue teams worked through the night to rescue survivors.
By Thursday afternoon, according to the mayor, the collapse had left eight dead and 18 injured. Two of the dead were children and four of the injured were firefighters. One of the injured was in critical condition and most of the hospitalized were stabilized.
The city issued a stop-work order for an adjacent lot, the excavation site where a new building and basement were proposed, according to city construction records that cited unsafe construction operations.
Mamdani said at a press briefing Thursday that the city had identified five entities connected to the adjacent construction site, which were linked to 100 other locations throughout the city. The mayor said that the city’s Department of Buildings will begin cleaning these places the same day.
“A tragedy of this magnitude requires a comprehensive and thorough investigation that includes both the construction site and the building that collapsed,” Mamdani said. The mayor said the probe would “extend to all the locations currently operated by those who operated the site.”
Construction workers were digging on a neighboring property when the building collapsed, said Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani. Officials do not yet know how many people were inside the building and how many remain unaccounted for.
In March, the city ordered demolition at the site to stop because “overhead protection was not installed or provided for adjacent properties.” The breach was later fixed and it is unclear if it played any role in the collapse.
“They were our friends and our neighbors, parents and children,” Mamdani said. “Let us continue to hold those who have been plunged into unimaginable grief.”
–With help from Laura Nahmias.
More such stories are available at bloomberg.com
