The entrance to the parking garage at 57 Ann Street, where one of the cars, smashed during the partial building collapse, lies among the ruins. Photo: Sandy Pae Goldstein
One person died and four others were injured Tuesday afternoon when the floors of a four-story parking garage at 57 Ann Street partially collapsed, sending concrete and cars crashing as far down as the cellar floor.
Six garage workers were in the building around 4 p.m. when the floors collapsed. One died, four were transported to the hospital in stable condition and one refused medical attention, said FDNY Chief of Operations John Esposito.
“There was a worker that was trapped on the upper floors. He was conscious and alert and moving around, calling us. He just couldn’t get down and we were able to put firefighters up there in the building and take him out across the roof to another building and bring him down safely,” Esposito said at a news briefing.
.jpeg "Firefighters and other first responders on Ann Street, at the scene of the garage collapse. Photo: Sandy Pae Goldstein")
Firefighters were conducting searches in the building as it was continuing to collapse, Esposito said. “We made the decision to remove all our people from the building.”
Esposito said the FDNY’s robotics unit was nearby and got to the scene quickly, where they deployed a robotic “dog” into the unstable structure, providing video from inside. Drones also transmitted urgently needed pictures of the structure. “This is the first time that we’ve been able to fly inside in a collapse to do this and try to get us some information…without risking the lives of our firefighters,” Esposito said.
“Thank God we had the robotic dog that was able to go in the building,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the scene. “This is ideally what we talk about, not sending a human being inside a building that’s unstable.”
Active violations on the building go back to 2003, said acting Buildings Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik. According to the Department of Buildings website, 57 Ann Street still has an open violation from 2009 for a “broken & defective fire stairs @ southwest section, rotten, opened with loose piece of concrete in danger of falling @ various locations & defective exit.”
Two nearby Pace University buildings, a residence hall at 33 Beekman St. and office and classroom space at 161 William St. were evacuated. “Students have been moved to our Student Center at 1 Pace Plaza and we are making appropriate accommodations for residents until they can safely return to their rooms,” Pace University said in a statement. “We are working closely with building inspectors, city leaders, structural engineers, and the FDNY in assessing the structural safety of our buildings.”