Rescuers dig for survivors after Brooklyn building collapse kills five

Cause under investigation as workers excavated the lot next door, official says

Firefighters removed three more bodies from the rubble of a three-story Brooklyn building early Thursday, raising the death toll to five after the structure collapsed at the edge of a construction site, while crews kept digging for others who may be trapped beneath the wreckage. The New York City Fire Department confirmed the additional deaths; the other two deaths were announced Wednesday.

At least 17 people were hospitalized with injuries after the building came down Wednesday afternoon, including four in critical condition. The cause of the collapse was under investigation, and the city’s buildings commissioner, Ahmed Tigani, noted that construction workers were excavating an empty lot next door for a new building when the structure fell.

Scores of firefighters and police officers clambered over the rubble pile overnight, wielding pickaxes and power saws and punching holes through the ruins to pull dust-covered people from beneath piles of twisted wood and brick. Rescue dogs were used to sniff for survivors.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani addressed the operation at a news conference Wednesday. “This has been an incredibly challenging and fast-moving situation, with precarious wreckage to navigate and dangerous voids beneath the surface,” Mamdani said. “This type of rescue is exactly what the FDNY trains for.” He said about 250 firefighters were working the scene.

On Wednesday night, firefighters pulled a woman — still alive and moving — out of a hole they had dug into the rubble pile, hoisting her up on a stretcher and rushing her to a waiting ambulance. Additional people were pulled from beneath the pile as the night went on.

Seven of the casualties were children, authorities said, though officials did not specify whether any of the children were among the dead. One firefighter sustained minor injuries, fire officials said.

Fire Department Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said the rescue teams were performing “dangerous and perilous” work. “Every move is choreographed,” she said.

The collapsed building was a mixed-use structure, with apartments sitting atop ground-floor commercial space. Much of its rubble wound up in a huge pile inside the construction pit next door. Another building that shared a wall with the collapsed structure remained standing, but the shared wall was shorn off, exposing the rooms inside — including a bedroom and closets filled with clothing.

Phone and email messages seeking comment were left Wednesday with the architect, property owner and general contractor listed in city records as associated with the construction project.

One resident of the collapsed building, Anderson Velez, told the New York Post he was at work when his wife called to say she and their two children, ages 7 and 2, were trapped in the wreckage. “She called me when the building collapsed while she was inside with rubble on top of her. She was screaming for someone to help get my son out and then the call cut off,” Velez said. He said he later learned that his family had been pulled from the rubble alive.