Cleanup efforts are still underway after an apartment building in the Bronx partially collapsed Monday afternoon, leaving two people with minor injuries, the FDNY said.

After completing an hours-long search Monday night, the FDNY said they found no victims stuck beneath the piles of rubble, which were 12 feet high in certain spots.

The fire department received a call just before 3:40 p.m. Monday reporting a structural collapse on Billingsley Terrace near Phelan Place in Morris Heights.

Firefighters began evacuating the building upon arrival, and two people sustained minor injuries during the evacuation, according to authorities.

The FDNY responded to the scene in less than two minutes, and power and gas were shut off in the building, New York City Emergency Management Department Commissioner Zachary Iscol said at a press conference.

Ischol said the city set up a service center for residents at PS 396, which is located on Andrews Avenue near the site of the collapse. Four MTA warming buses were on the scene, and the American Red Cross is helping the city assist residents of the apartment building.

The Red Cross says approximately 37 households (138 people) are displaced after the building collapse. 

Residents who need a place to stay as recovery efforts continue are encouraged to go to PS 396, where teams will be present to help residents find shelter "for the duration of this event," Iscol said.

Speaking to NY1 after the incident, Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said “one-quarter” of the building collapsed.

At a press conference shortly after, Kavanagh called recovery efforts "an ongoing operation."

"Our members behind me as we speak are still conducting search and rescue, and they will do so until we either find someone or confirm that there is no one under that rubble," Kavanagh said.

Kavanagh said firefighters and the FDNY’s K-9 unit were searching through the rubble.

According to city Department of Buildings records, the address has been subject to multiple complaints over the last six months about construction and scaffolding. DOB Commissioner James Oddo said at a press conference that the building currently has seven open violations — two DOB violations and five Environmental Control Board violations — but Oddo said those violations are not structural, and are related to sidewalk sheds.

Oddo said the owner of the building submitted a report in March 2021. That report found seven unsafe façade conditions, with deteriorating mortar and cracked bricks, according to Oddo.

In a post on social media after the collapse, the NYPD encouraged people to avoid the area of West Burnside Avenue between Osborne Place and Phelan Place as recovery efforts progress.

Multiple streets were closed in the area as of Tuesday morning.

They included:

  • West Burnside Avenue East between Sedgwick Avenue and Grand Concourse
  • University Avenue North between West Burnside Avenue and West Fordham Road, backed up to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
  • University Avenue South between West Fordham Road and West Burnside Avenue, backed up to West 180th Street
  • West Burnside Avenue West between Grand Concourse and Sedgwick Avenue