Preliminary FDNY reports said Wednesday that the deadly collapse of a Financial District parking garage was likely caused by the building’s age and the number of cars on its top deck — as the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office opened a probe into the disaster.
Photos from the scene show numerous vehicles, many of them bulky SUVs, jammed together on the roof of the fallen structure — which left the building’s manager, Willis Moore, dead and five others hurt Tuesday afternoon.
“There’s over 50 cars on the roof,” Zach Iscol, the commissioner of the city’s emergency management office, said at a Wednesday press conference.
“The building is not structurally sound, you think about hazardous materials that are in the garage, right gas tanks, fluids, further complicated by the fact that there are possibly some electric vehicles in that garage,” he added, noting the ongoing danger to investigators.
An internal memo from the FDNY said the working theory behind the cause of the disaster was that the three-story garage likely crumbled under the weight of the many vehicles on the roof.
The structure’s advanced age — it was originally built during the Coolidge administration in 1925 — also likely contributed, the memo said.
The office of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said Wednesday that they will probe the cause of the collapse, but did not give any details about if any criminality is suspected.
The garage collapsed Tuesday afternoon, killing one and injuring four others. Gina M Randazzo/ZUMA
Cars are seen at the entrance to the parking garage after the collapse. Joe Marino/NY Post
Four of the five injured people went to the hospital, authorities said. AP
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will open an investigation into what caused the collapse, his office said. William Farrington
Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference that there were over 50 cars on the roof of the garage. Tom Kaminski/WCBS 880 News via APMeanwhile, the fire department on Wednesday was trying to remove the cars still trapped inside so it could demolish the pancaked deck. A massive backhoe with a clam bucket tore into building’s brick-and-mortar flanks Wednesday morning, hurling a cloud of dust and debris into the city streets.
Firefighters also have to remove the deceased man, who remains inside.
“We are unable to get to the victim,” one fire official said, blaming the building’s instability. “It’s going to be a prolonged operation over several days.
Emergency services workers removing cars from the collapsed garage on April 19, 2023. Gina M Randazzo/ZUMA
A crushed car getting lifted out of the debris. William Farrington
The collapse left one person dead and several others injured. om Kaminski/WCBS 880 News via APFire officials are planning to carry out a controlled demolition on Thursday.
Zach Iscol, the commissioner of the city’s emergency management office, added that it was an “incredibly complex operation.”
The Ann Street garage caved in at about 4:10 p.m., swallowing dozens of cars and sending slabs of concrete plummeting from the fourth floor into the cellar.
Workers removing debris from the facade of the parking garage. William Farrington
The preliminary FDNY reports said the collapse was due to the building’s age and too many cars being on the top level. William Farrington
Destroyed cars on the sidewalk after being removed from the garage. William FarringtonShocking footage from the scene showed multiple cars on top of the crushed roof.
Four of the five people injured were taken to the hospital.
All of them had been working inside when the building collapsed.
The building was not under construction, although there were active permits.
Records from the city’s Department of Building show four open violations against the building’s owners, all of which were related to construction issues.
One of these – first issued nearly two decades ago – was particularly worrisome.
Inspectors said they found slab cracks in the building’s first-floor ceiling, steel beams that weren’t concrete-coated as they should be and defective concrete with “exposed rear cracks,” according to documents.
Another violation from 2009 said loose pieces of concrete threatened to fall in several different areas, that the owners hadn’t fixed “rotten” fire stairs.
It’s unclear if any of these defects or failures contributed to the building’s ruination.
Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that the investigation will find out what happened and help city officials determine if there should be more preventative measures in place.
“There is the law, you gotta’ abide by that law,” Adams said.
The structure kept on crumbling as firefighters searched the rubble, forcing them to evacuate.
In their place, the FDNY sent in drones as well as its Boston Dynamics robotic dog.
Nearby Pace University canceled the day’s classes afterward.
On Wednesday, demolition teams lifted battered cars from the concrete wreckage — some with their car alarms still flashing — and lined them up in the middle of Ann Street, according to ABC7.
Authorities told the station that some cars will have to be cutup and removed in pieces — a process that could draw the clean-up out for days, or maybe weeks. —
