One person died and at least five others were injured when a parking garage in lower Manhattan collapsed Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
The four-story parking garage on Ann Street, between Nassau and Williams streets near Pace University, collapsed at around 4:15 p.m., the FDNY said. The garage is a few blocks away from City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge, and less than a mile from the New York Stock Exchange.
Six people who worked in the building were injured in the collapse, one of whom died, John Esposito, the FDNY's chief of fire operations, said at a news briefing. Four of the workers were hospitalized in stable condition, and a fifth worker refused medical attention at the scene, Esposito said.
Officials said they believed they had everybody accounted for.
Firefighters responding to a call reporting the building collapse went inside the structure to conduct searches, Esposito said. But when the building's condition continued to deteriorate, the FDNY pulled all staff out of the building and switched over to robotic tools, he said.
The FDNY sent a robotic dog into the building to survey the scene, and used a drone to view the condition of the interior of the building, he added. Videos taken via the robotic dog were sent to the phones of nearby firefighters.
"This was an extremely dangerous operation for our firefighters," he said. "This will be a prolonged operation."
Esposito called the building "very unstable," noting that concrete slabs from different floors had collapsed onto each other and crushed cars inside the garage. The building suffered a "pancake collapse," Acting Department of Buildings Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik said.
The Associated Press reports that city Department of Buildings records show the collapsed structure has been a garage since at least since the 1920s, and there are no recent construction permits.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine acknowledged the age of the structure during an appearance on “Mornings On 1” Wednesday, saying that may have played a factor in the collapse.
“The building was built in 1925 and it's unclear what it was used for originally, but it got a certificate of occupancy in 1957 for automobile parking. It's an old building and there were a number of violations over the years. It's unclear how serious any might have been that were outstanding today. There was also an open construction permit. We don't know if construction was being done actively, but that certainly raises a question,” he said.
Levine noted that the collapse also raised questions regarding the city’s inspection process for parking structures, as many may not be able to bear the weight of modern vehicles being stacked on top of one another, as was the case Tuesday.
Pace University canceled all classes at its New York City campus for the day because of the collapse, school officials said. They also evacuated an adjacent dorm and classroom building, sending the displaced students to a student center while working out other accommodations, the Associated Press reports.
Classes resumed Wednesday. However, faculty and staff with offices in 161 William were asked to shift to remote work.