00:00We will continue to update New Yorkers with more information as we have it.
00:04I want to thank our city's first responders for their quick and professional response.
00:09This has been an incredibly challenging and fast-moving situation,
00:14with precarious wreckage to navigate and dangerous voids beneath the surface.
00:19This type of rescue is exactly what the FDNY trains for.
00:23250 firefighters and EMS personnel responded and have worked tirelessly
00:28to secure the scene and rescue those who were trapped.
00:31And I want to thank every other agency who has contributed to this whole-of-government response.
00:37In addition to the FDNY, NISOM, the NYPD, DOB, and HPD are all on site.
00:44And we are grateful for the support from both utility providers and the Red Cross who are also on site.
00:51NISOM and the Red Cross have opened a reception center for impacted and displaced residents
00:57at the Flatbush YMCA at 1401 Flatbush Avenue.
01:02And as emergency services respond, Flatbush Avenue is closed from Clarendon Avenue to Bedford Avenue.
01:08I want to ask New Yorkers to continue to avoid the area so that rescue scenes can get here to
01:15the scene and do their work.
01:17DOB and our law enforcement partners will be leading an investigation into the cause of this building collapse.
01:24As soon as we have more information on this, we will share it directly with New Yorkers.
01:29This was a devastating collapse.
01:31And we know that it affects the lives of many New Yorkers who live here on Flatbush.
01:35As we rebuild, the City of New York will stand alongside those impacted at every step of the way.
01:43And now I will pass it over to our FDNY Commissioner, Lillian Bonsignor.
01:48Thank you, sir.
01:54Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
01:55Good evening.
01:56This afternoon, at approximately 4.01 p.m., a call came in for a collapse at 1321 Flatbush Avenue here
02:05in Brooklyn.
02:06This was a major technical response at a three-story multiple dwelling that collapsed into an adjacent construction site.
02:15Multiple people from the building and the construction site were trapped.
02:19Fire and EMS units responded within one minute.
02:23And more than 250 firefighters and EMS personnel are currently operating on scene.
02:30In coordination with NYPD, NISOM, the Department of Buildings, the Red Cross, HPD, and our utility companies,
02:38we have been working for hours to do all we can to help anyone who may have been injured in
02:44this collapse.
02:45We do not know how many people are still in the collapse zone, and this will be a prolonged operation.
02:52Its cause is under investigation.
02:56Currently, and this is subject to change, we have 19 patients.
03:0219 patients, sadly.
03:04We have two that are deceased, four that are critical, 12 that are stable, and we also have one firefighter
03:12with minor injuries.
03:13Of those 19, seven are children.
03:18We won't be talking about their ages at this moment.
03:21We expect that there could be more people as this operation progresses.
03:27The units are performing dangerous and heroic work.
03:31Thanks to social media and our local news, I know there is already a tremendous amount of video of the
03:37rescue efforts
03:37performed by our firefighters and rescue paramedics and fellow first responders.
03:43They encounter dangerous and perilous conditions, working as teams to remove debris carefully
03:50as to not injure the patients or themselves.
03:54Collapse operations are extremely dangerous because, as you know, the risk of disrupting the piles by moving too quickly,
04:03that can have a detrimental consequence.
04:06Every move is choreographed and critically important to patient outcomes and member safety.
04:12They have been working methodically and have not stopped since they arrived here this afternoon.
04:18Our canine unit is also on the scene, and they are working the pile alongside of NYPD's canine unit.
04:27This is why we train on these types of incidents so often, to ensure that the medics and the firefighters
04:34who are tasked with entering these unstable and dangerous collapse zones know exactly what to expect and how to get
04:41this job done.
04:42I cannot thank our firefighters and our rescue medics enough for the tremendous job that they're doing here tonight,
04:48working carefully in coordinated efforts to keep calm, make smart decisions,
04:53and protect themselves and their patients, to get them medical treatment even as they are trying to get them out
05:00of the collapse zone safely.
05:02It is inspiring and intricate work, and I commend our teams for a job well done.
05:07We know that we're not finished here, and we will likely not be finished for quite some time.
05:13In the meantime, we send our thoughts and our prayers to all of those affected by this collapse
05:19and to the members of our commands, all of our commands, for their continued safety in this very dangerous operation.
05:28I'd like to introduce our Chief of Department, John Esposito, to talk about the operation details.
05:43Thank you, Commissioner.
05:45We arrived on scene less than one minute after the collapse.
05:49One of our fire companies was in the neighborhood returning from another emergency, and they drove upon the scene.
05:57They encountered people trapped in the adjacent building that was part of the collapse.
06:03They immediately took action and removed those people from danger.
06:08We have the complete collapse of a three-story multiple dwelling into the construction site excavation next door.
06:16We have enacted our collapse rescue plan.
06:21We have searched and continue to search any void spaces looking for any victims,
06:26and we've removed a few from that collapse area.
06:30We've removed everybody, and we're using our dogs, the FDNY dogs and the NYPD dogs,
06:37to see if there's any additional places to search.
06:41If they identify that, we will search those areas, and then we will commence our selected debris removal
06:48as we remove all of that pile to get down to the dirt and search and remove any additional victims.
06:56As the Commissioner said, this is an extremely dangerous operation for all of our people.
07:02It's a very unstable situation.
07:05The adjoining building that remains partially intact is always a danger,
07:11where the main concern is a secondary collapse.
07:15We've taken measures to keep an eye on that and try to ensure that there is no further collapse,
07:22and we will be here for several days until this entire site is searched for all potential victims.
07:36Do you know what type of work was taking place at the construction site,
07:45and what does this mean for other construction sites like this that are so close to other construction sites?
07:49That's all part of the investigation that we'll find out.
07:52We know that there was work going on.
07:54There were construction workers actively working when the collapse occurred.
07:58Just give me one second, if we could have the DOB commissioner come up.
08:07The type of work they were conducting was excavation work on that job site,
08:13and so that was what they were working on today.
08:17They have a plan approved for a three-story building,
08:21but they have current plans looking for a nine-story building, which I've not yet been approved for.
08:26At this point, all we have at this time is excavation work in that section of the construction site.
08:34Yes, they were digging down.
08:40We do not know how many people from the occupied multiple dwelling are missing.
08:46We're investigating, trying to determine that.
08:49We do not know how many people are missing in overall.
08:53All right, for Dr. Martin, please have a member of the sponsor for our work.
08:57So if you can, just please clarify the number of the period of the mayor said about 10,
09:02it seems like there's been 19, and also the secret or the secret or secret or secret or secret or
09:07secret or secret or secret or secret or secret or secret or secret or secret or secret or secret or
09:11secret.
09:14There's a few things we want to underline here, and then I'm going to pass it over to our commissioner.
09:17One is that it's a fast-moving situation, and the numbers may change as the work continues.
09:24The two that have been deceased, and I said to your first question, more than 10 New Yorkers have been
09:31hospitalized,
09:32some with critical life-threatening injuries, others with non-life-threatening injuries.
09:37I'll have the commissioner just have the additional details.
09:41Yeah, that is correct.
09:43The fact that we're here during this operation is still ongoing.
09:47This is going to be a very fast-moving, very dynamic situation.
09:51So, yes, more than 10 were hospitalized.
09:53By the time I got here, the most updated number was 19, which we offered you.
09:58They will likely change, and it will change by the minute sometimes.
10:01So, as far as the two that are deceased, we're not saying whether they were adults or children.
10:08We're just saying there were two deceased at this moment because this is such a very fragile situation here,
10:16and we really don't know how many people were in those buildings, was in this building when it collapsed.
10:22So, as the chief said, we'll continue to look until we find everybody,
10:26and we work in collaboration with NYPD to see if there's any missing reports.
10:32We all work together to try to determine how many people are still to be found.
10:37There's only a time for it. Thank you, guys.
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