3 Injured After High Winds Take Down Scaffolding Atop Brooklyn Building
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It was a scary scene in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon as scaffolding crashed down from the top of a new 12-story building, injuring three people in the building next door.
The incident happened around 3 p.m. at Fourth Avenue and Carroll Street in Park Slope.
The building, known as the Parlour Condominiums, is still under construction and sits right next to popular bar Mission Dolores, where several patrons were enjoying their Sunday afternoon. However, the FDNY said heavy winds blew the scaffolding literally off the top of the building. Huge pieces of metal and wood plummeted on to the open-air patio space below, crashing through a glass atrium and injuring three people. One woman sustained very serious head injuries and was rushed to the hospital, officials said.
People who live in the neighborhood said they heard the scaffolding crash and some thought it was a truck crashing on the street below, while others said the impact felt like an earthquake.
"I heard a loud bang, like a kaboom. I thought it was a tractor trailer accident," witness Mark Weintraub told CBS2's Hazel Sanchez.
Witness Joe Crittenden was helping his son move out of a nearby building.
"I heard a crashing noise and looked up and I saw the scaffolding coming off the top of the building up there," Crittenden said, adding there were very severe wind gusts in the area at the time.
"I heard this thud and I thought it was just thunder, and the kids were just freaking out," witness So Lee added. "Some of the drawers just opened. I think the stuff they really hit the building, the scaffolding hit the building and the building actually shook. I felt it. I thought it was an earthquake. I heard some commotion outside and people were screaming."
Parts of the scaffolding were delicately dismantled late Sunday evening. The Department of Buildings is investigating.
Sales on the Parlour Condominiums just started in spring, but the building has not been without problem since construction began, Sanchez reported.
The Department of Buildings website says the general contractor for the property has received a dozen construction safety violations this year -- five in the month of June, including workers operating without the proper license.
The DOB issued four violations to the contractor for not properly safeguarding the construction site and because the scaffolding wasn't up to code. Sanchez was unable to reach the contractor for comment.