NEW YORK (WPIX) – After a building in the Bronx partially collapsed on Monday, New York City fire officials have said no one was found underneath the rubble.
The six-story structure at 1915 Billingsly Terrace in Morris Heights partially collapsed around 3:30 p.m., according to the New York City Fire Department (FDNY).
“For hours, FDNY members searched for potential victims of the partial building collapse at 1915 Billingsley Terrace,” the department said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “They have gone through a large pile of debris, 12 feet high in spots, and found no victims. Two civilians sustained minor injuries during the evacuation.”
Citizen App video showed several stories of the building exposed with what appeared to be a home appliance, possibly a washing machine or dryer, visible on one of the floors. A pile of a debris could be seen around the base of the building after the partial collapse.
Witnesses said they heard loud cracking noises a few minutes before the collapse, which led some people to evacuate the building.
A deli is located in the building where the collapse occurred, a worker at a neighboring business told NewsNation affiliate WPIX. Mayor Eric Adams said everyone in the deli was able to get out in time, according to the store owner.
Officials said they are sending residents in need of a place to stay to a service center at an area public school, and New York City’s transit authority has provided four warming buses.
Department of Buildings Commissioner James Oddo said the building was built in 1927 and had seven open violations.
“Any building that’s higher than six stories falls within the jurisdiction of our facade law in New York City. 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,” Oddo said. “There is an active permit. The permit that’s valid until next summer. Work was being done on this building as recently as a few days ago … Right now we see seven open violations, five ECB, two DOB, but they are not structural violations.”
Oddo said the violations had to do with the sidewalk shed, and drawings were submitted as part of the process on the side of the building that collapsed.
“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. So obviously, we will take a strong look at that,” Oddo said. “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.”
