A three-story building collapsed Wednesday afternoon in Brooklyn, New York, leaving at least one person dead, two seriously injured, and one person trapped under the rubble. Local authorities responded with dozens of personnel and search equipment, while the exact cause remains tied to preliminary reports about a nearby construction site.
Preliminary toll from the Flatbush collapse
The incident occurred at around 4:00 p.m. local time in the Flatbush neighborhood, a residential area in Brooklyn. According to reports from U.S. media citing an official from the New York Fire Department, one person died and two others were seriously injured.
Another person was still under the rubble at the time of the rescue operation, while teams were working to pull them out. The toll remains preliminary as long as the searches continue at the scene.
The building was next to a construction site
The collapsed building had three stories and was located next to a construction site. A shop operated on the ground floor, while on the upper floors there was at least one apartment.
According to the version reported by CNN, the collapse is suspected to have been caused by work at the adjacent construction site. At this stage, this remains a claim reported by U.S. media and not an official conclusion of the investigation.
Drone searches and an operation in the dark
Footage from the scene shows firefighters pulling one person from the pile of rubble and transporting them on a stretcher away from the collapse area.
Emergency teams also used drones to assist the search. As darkness fell, the operation continued with flashlights, while dozens of firefighters worked to remove debris from the building and check every space where someone might have been trapped.
What the authorities said
The New York Fire Department announced Wednesday afternoon that its units were responding to a building collapse on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.
So far, there is no other public information about responsibility or about safety measures at the construction site next to the collapsed building.
The incident has renewed attention on the danger that construction work can pose in densely populated residential areas, especially when existing buildings are located next to active construction sites.
For now, the authorities’ focus remains on the search under the rubble and on clarifying the circumstances that led to the collapse of the building.