One person has died and multiple people were injured after a parking garage collapsed in Lower Manhattan Tuesday afternoon, FDNY officials said.
The collapse took place on Ann Street near Nassau Street at around 4 p.m. when, according to senior FDNY officials, the second floor of a five-story parking garage, collapsed into the first floor.
Officials confirmed one person — a worker in the building — died in the collapse.
“As far as we can tell, so far there were six patients — six workers in the building — at the time of the collapse,” FDNY Chief of Operations James Esposito said, adding that four were hospitalized in stable condition, one who refused medical attention, and one who tragically passed away.
Esposito described the rescue operation as “extremely dangerous” due to the unstable building, prompting firefighters to retreat and the department to send into the building the newly added NYPD robotic dog (also known as Digidog) to analyze the scene and make sure no one else was inside without putting in jeopardy the safety of first responders. Drones were also being used to get additional information from the scene, according to Esposito.
Although Esposito said first responders believe everyone is accounted for, they continue to search for any person possibly trapped in the crushed cars or amid the concrete rubble of the collapsed garage.
The garage is a location where the New York Sheriff’s Department parks their vehicles, New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda told News 4 New York. All members of the department are accounted for.
