A worker died when a two-story home that was being illegally built collapsed in Brooklyn on Friday, fire and city officials said.
The 33-year-old construction worker was found unresponsive when first responders arrived at 1266 50th Street, near 13th Avenue, in Borough Park just after noon.
The man had been working on the home when the first floor of the dwelling suddenly gave way – pinning him under the debris in the basement, officials said.
A construction worker has died after a building collapse at 1266 50th St. in Brooklyn, the FDNY said. William Farrington for NY Post
FDNY firefighters remove the body of a construction worker who was killed in the collapse. William Farrington for NY Post“The floor collapse … was in a V shaped, the middle of the floor collapsed and came down on top of the victim,” FDNY Assistant Chief Joseph Ferrante said.
The worker, whose identity is being withheld pending family notification, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Workers at the site told The Post they’d been hired to construct a “front framing Jewish synagogue.”
The construction, however, was being carried out in violation of a “stop work order” that was slapped on the site on Jan. 4 following an earlier complaint, Department of Buildings Commissioner James Oddo said.
Firefighters inspect the site of the building collapse. Citizen App
No other injuries have been reported involving the deadly collapse. William Farrington for NY Post“This fatality absolutely should not have happened. They should not have been doing this work, let alone having a bobcat inside this structure,” Oddo told reporters at the site of the collapse.
“There could be multiple fines at this location. So the amount may end up in six figures.”
No other injuries were reported, the FDNY said.
National Grid emergency responders arriving at the scene. William Farrington for NY PostFootage showed throngs of first responders and onlookers, including a number of Hasidic Jewish men, flooding the street outside the construction site in the wake of the tragedy.
Investigators were working to determine what led to the collapse, FDNY officials said.
“We’re not sure what caused it, there was construction materials on the floor at the time of the collapse, whether it caused it or not I don’t know,” Ferrante said.
