Brooklyn building collapse killed 2 children and 6 adults, mayor says

Rescue crews used heavy equipment Thursday to search the rubble of a three-story Brooklyn apartment building that collapsed Wednesday afternoon, killing at least eight people, including two children, and injuring 18 others, among them four firefighters. The building gave way while construction workers were digging at an adjacent lot.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered inspections at about 100 building sites involving companies related to the project and vowed accountability. "If there is anyone, or any entity, operating in this city that bears responsibility for what happened, we will hold them fully accountable," Mamdani said. Investigators have not determined the cause. Two of the dead were construction workers, and victims included people from Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Trinidad.

Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said emergency workers pulled four victims from the debris early Thursday and that excavators later removed larger piles to search deeper. "We always assume there are more people there until we can access the ground," Bonsignore said. "So until we remove some of the bigger debris and are able to search beneath them, this will remain a rescue operation."

Witnesses described hearing loud banging and seeing bricks fall minutes before the collapse. James Williams, who works at a deli across the street, said he spotted a woman on a staircase as the building crumbled. "There wasn't anything I could do," he said. Hairstylist Brigitte Anama said she saw emergency workers pulling people from the rubble, including what appeared to be a child, while people shouted, "Pray for the baby, pray for the baby."

Resident Dervie Mapp said she and others had complained for months about the construction project and that her landlord brought in engineers, but residents never received an inspection report. The collapse was the second high-profile structural problem in New York in five months, following the evacuation of several Manhattan buildings in July after support columns buckled in a former Pfizer headquarters skyscraper.

Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal