NYC parking garage collapse: Work underway to remove cars from rubble, demolish what's left
NEW YORK -- A day after a deadly parking garage collapse in the Financial District, firefighters remain on the scene.
One person was killed and five others were injured when the four-story garage caved in on Tuesday afternoon.
Concern lingers about the stability of the building. Crews continued work Wednesday to demolish the garage. As investigators try to find out what caused the collapse, officials remain concerned about the possibility of it impacting neighboring buildings.
Ann Street has been a mess while crews continue tearing down the structure of the parking garage. Glass, bricks, ceiling beams and other material can be seen on the ground.
But from the skies, the images resemble something you might see stemming from an earthquake. Chopper 2 was over the scene on Wednesday morning and showed cars parked on a once-standing roof deck now caved in onto other vehicles down below.
"Our engineers deployed and currently checking adjoining buildings and observing footage from drone pictures to identify possible reason for collapse," Department of Buildings Acting Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik said.
New: @CBSNewYork @NYCSHERIFF parks vehicles in the garage that collapsed. Six were parked there at the time. No one from @NYCSHERIFF office was there during collapse.
— Alice Gainer (@GainerTV) April 19, 2023
Officials are also reviewing property information to understand the history of the building dating to the 1920s, according to the city.
There is still no word on what caused the deadly, although an early investigation shows the weight of the parked cars on the roof and the age of the garage played a role.
Mayor Eric Adams promised there would be a full investigation.
"Everything form weight capacity to how many cars can be there. And that is all part of this investigation. We're gonna look - we look at every circumstance to say 'let's learn from it.' So that's what the Department of Buildings, our structural engineers, they're going to have to look at this and say 'What do we learn from this?'" Adams said.
As the Lower Manhattan community works to cleanup the rubble, it was a somber day for Saamyr Saheem, who said he knew the victim who died. He was a manager at the garage.
"He always joked around and stuff like that, like 'C'mon man, move your car. I'll have it towed.' All the jokes and stuff like that," Saheem said.
CBS2 was told it will take most of the day to tear the nearly century-old garage down.
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