The FDNY responded to a major emergency at a 6-story, residential building located just south of University Heights in the Morris Heights section of The Bronx, after the corner of the building partially collapsed on Monday afternoon, Dec. 11.

 

Rescue operations continued by emergency services well into the night and morning, according to the FDNY. Initial reports by City officials were that there were unknown injuries, but by Tuesday, officials said they had not found anyone buried under the rubble, that there had been no fatalities and that people who had been in a deli located underneath the building at the time of the collapse had all been evacuated.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, District Attorney Darcel Clark, District 14 City Council Member Pierina Sanchez, Assembly Member Yudekla Tapia (A.D. 86), NYC Emergency Management Services Commissioner Zach Iscol, NYC Department of Buildings Commissioner James Oddo and other City officials held a press conference earlier on Monday to provide an overview of the situation. 

Adams said during the press conference, “This incident took place at approximately 3:30 p.m. There was a partial collapse of a residential building here in Morris Heights section of The Bronx. Our first responders responded immediately, and because of video observation, we were able to have a preliminary review and communication with the owner of the store that everyone that was in the store is out at the time. The FDNY will give you an overview of exactly where we are, if there are any other people we believe are caught in the [rubble] at all.” 

Iscol went on to say, “For residents of the building, we’re directing them to a service center that we have set up at P.S. 390, just up the block. We will have a service center there. We also have the MTA out here with warming buses for residents who need it. So, there’s a real collective effort that’s taking place out here to serve the needs of the people who live in this building and this community, as we go through this process. But again, any residents that need a place to stay tonight, please go to P.S. 390. We will have teams there to help find you a place to stay for the duration of this event.”

Kavanagh added, “All of our specialized training and resources that we have for an incident like this have gone to work. We have our drone opp, surveying the area, seeing if we can find additional information about potential patients, and areas of potential instability. We have our canine unit here helping us search for potential victims, and we have all of our special, specially trained firefighters, tactical units, collapse units, and our EMTs and rescue medics trained specifically to treat someone in a collapse.”

 

He added, “We had dogs do searches and at this time, our main objective is to get to the bottom of that pile. We’ll be here until we’re down to the street level just to make sure if there are any victims under there. Hopefully, we can get to them in time, but it’s an ongoing operation. It’s this type of operation we train for every day at our training facility. Our specialized units, we have a pile of debris at the Rock [training facility], and we train exactly under these conditions for this day that hopefully doesn’t happen too often.”

Oddo later said, “This is a 1927 building, and 7 stories. Any building that’s higher than six stories falls within the jurisdiction of our “Facade Law” in New York City. These folks, the owner of this building, submitted their most recent report in March of [2021]. That report did find unsafe facade conditions, seven of them, mortar that was deteriorating, cracked bricks. There is an active permit, a permit that’s valid until next summer. Work was being done on this building as recently as a few days ago.”

 

He added, “I know you’ll be interested in the history of the building in terms of violations. Right now, we see seven open violations, five ECB (Environmental Control Board), two DOB (NYC Department of Buildings), but they are not structural violations. It has to do with the sidewalk shed, the fact that it didn’t have proper lighting, etc. There are drawings that were submitted as part of the process to pull the permit that speaks to the part of the right lower corner that is collapsed.”

Oddo continued, “So, obviously, we’ll take a strong look at that. Our engineers and our inspectors hope to be able, once given the green light from FDNY, to get into the building into the second part of the each building to do an inspection and we’ll have more answers after that.”

 

Officials were asked about reports from residents who allegedly saw some drilling into the building and later the collapse. Oddo replied, “Can’t tell you much more. Certainly can’t speak to what the drilling is. Don’t know what it’s about. Again, we’re taking a look at the drawings that they submitted as part of the permit, and I want to be clear. Unsafe facade conditions is not the same as an unsafe building, but we are taking a good look at the paperwork, the drawings that they submitted and as soon as we have answers, obviously, we’ll share them.”

 

Asked if there was construction ongoing at the building on Monday, Oddo said, “We don’t believe there were folks working on the facade work today. So far, as of now, we think the most recent work on the facade as several days ago.”

The building appears to be owned by 1915 Realty LLC, according to City records, which has an address at 1419 AVENUE J in Brooklyn. Norwood News has tried to reach the LLC for comment. We will update this story upon receipt of any feedback.

 

Gibson later tweeted, “Anyone affected by today’s partial residential building collapse in Morris Heights, please come to the reception center at PS 396/MS 390, located on 1930 Andrews Avenue (entrance on West Burnside Avenue). The Red Cross is on site registering clients who need hotel accommodations.”

 

Of the search and rescue efforts, Hodgens later said he didn’t know if more of the building might come down or not as they don’t know what caused the collapse in the first place. He said firefighters were working in fairly dangerous circumstances but were searching under a large pile of debris in front of the building for any survivors. He said they were tunneling into the debris pile as safely as they could.

 

“We don’t know if anyone is trapped under there; hopefully not,” Hodgens said. “We’re searching for life and that’s our main objective at this time.”

Asked about construction work on a sidewalk shed, Hodgens said he didn’t have any information on that so couldn’t comment.

 

Asked about a timetable for the rescue operations, the chief said, “There is no timetable. We will search the whole debris pile until every piece is picked up and we can see whether there’s anyone there or not.”

 

Click here to read our subsequent story on residents’ reaction to the collapse.

 

To view some short videos of the scene, some taken after dark by Norwood News, and some taken during daylight hours courtesy of local residents, José and his sister, Lisa, who live in the area, click here, here, here, and here.

For those wishing to assist the victims, the following GoFundMe pages have been confirmed as having been screened and deemed legitimate by GoFundMe:

 

Bronx Building Collapse Victims Ana & Ramon:

https://gf.me/v/c/c9sg/bronx-building-collapse-victims-Ana-and-Ramon

 

Bronx Building Collapse 1915 Billingsley Terrace:

https://gf.me/v/c/c9sg/bronx-building-collapse

 

Bronx Partial Building Collapse: Acosta Family:

https://gf.me/v/c/c9sg/bronx-partial-building-collapse-acosta-family

 

In June 2023, a construction worker fell 30 feet from a building site in Wakefield. In July 2023, as reported, six people were injured after a partial wall collapse at a construction site in Olinville. Also in July, two construction workers were injured in a building site collapse at Orchard Beach. On Nov. 30, a fire was reported at a construction site in Bedford Park. There were no injuries reported.