An ancient multi-storey building in the Manhattan’s Financial District of New York City, being used as a car garage for about 60 years collapsed, killing one and leaving at least five injured, BBC reported.
The publication quoted the New York City Fire Department chief John Esposito as saying that the rescue operation was “extremely dangerous” as the structure was “very unstable”.
“We had firefighters inside the building conducting searches. The building was continuing to collapse,” he said. “At this time, we believe that we have the workers that were in danger all accounted for, all out of the building.”
He said that the building was continuing to collapse with several firefighters inside the building.
As per a report published by The New York Times, the crumbling structure was erected in 1925 and was due for an inspection after nine months, New York City’s first deadline for buildings to be inspected for hazardous conditions.
There were hundreds of cars parked inside the building at the time of the collapse.
However, what caused the building to cave in was still unknown as the officials said that the probe into the matter was at a very early staged.
City’s Mayor Eric Adams said during a press conference after the collapse that they were examining the incident closely.
“If there’s something we could put in place to prevent something like this from happening, we will,” he said.
