One person has died and several others are injured after a parking garage collapsed in New York City on Tuesday.
As reported by CBS News, the incident took place around 4 p.m. in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. A three-story building located on Ann Street near Nassau Street caved in on itself, leaving at least one person killed, four hospitalized, and one with injuries who refused medical care. All four were workers at the garage.
“Injuries, deaths expected to change rapidly,” an FDNY official said, per the New York post.
“At this time, we only have one DOA,” Mayor Eric Adams told CBS. “I do want to point out that thank God we had the robotic dog that was able to go in the building. This is ideally what we talk about—not sending a human being inside a building that was unstable. We were also able to use the technology of a drone to give a real visualization of what’s happening in this building. At this time this building is completely unstable and the chief [concern]—we do not want to send in someone until we can make sure the building is shored up. But using the necessary technology we’re able to get a clear view of what’s happening inside the building, for the most part, and do whatever we can to see if there are any more victims.”
Due to an emergency response to a structural collapse, please avoid the area of Ann Street, between Nassau Street & William Street in lower Manhattan.
Firefighters arrived at the scene but were ultimately pulled away due to the instability of the remaining structure.
FDNY Chief of Operations James Esposito said at a news conference that officials believe “everyone is accounted for,” as the Fire Department sent in a team of drones, as well as the aforementioned robotic dog, to get a close look at the wreckage inside the building.
Video shows an FDNY robot dog working at the scene of a parking garage collapse on Tuesday afternoon.
“We deployed our robot dog into the building they were able to give us a video inside and then we’re able to fly drones inside to conduct an assessment and conduct searches,” Esposito told reporters.
It is not yet clear why the building collapsed, though Mayor Adams confirmed there were no open violations on the structure.
