Apartment Building Collapses onto Construction Site, Killing Eight
At least eight people were killed after a three-storey apartment building collapsed onto a construction site in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn, New York. Rescue teams worked through the night to search for people still trapped beneath the rubble after the incident on Wednesday, 11 November 2026.
Witness James Williams, 60, said he heard a loud bang before the building came down.
“I smelled smoke, then saw bricks falling. But two minutes later, I saw the building collapse and come down … it was absolutely horrific,” he told AFP.
The New York Fire Department said four other victims were taken to hospital in critical condition, while more than a dozen people were injured. Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore had earlier said that seven children were among those hurt.
The building, which dated from 1930, contained four apartment units and commercial space on the ground floor. The three-storey structure collapsed towards an excavation site at the adjacent construction project, while a nearby building was also damaged, with parts of its walls and rooms exposed.
About 250 firefighters and rescue workers were deployed, including teams with search dogs. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the evacuation was difficult because the site was filled with unstable debris and dangerous voids beneath the ground.
Construction activity beside the collapsed building is now under scrutiny. Ahmed Tigani, commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings, said the developer had received approval to build a three-storey building at the site and was seeking permission for a nine-storey project.
Documents from the Department of Buildings reviewed by AFP show that the site was subject to a stop-work order in April because demolition conditions were considered potentially dangerous.
Work nevertheless continued until the company involved was fined US$10,000, or about Rp180 million. No evidence has yet been found that the violations were directly connected to the building’s collapse.
As of Thursday, the precise cause of the collapse remained unknown and was under investigation. Department of Buildings officials were also checking the structural stability of nearby buildings to ensure there was no risk of further collapses.