NYC Investigates Fatal Parking Garage Collapse [VIDEO]

April 19, 2023 Disaster, New York City

The New York Daily News reports:

A four-story garage collapsed Tuesday afternoon, killing one person, injuring five others and sending lower Manhattan into chaos, according to emergency officials. The structure at Ann and William streets “pancaked” just after 4 p.m., Buildings Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik said at a press conference near the scene.

The upper floors packed with cars crumbled, sending vehicles into the void below, jaw-dropping photos taken from adjacent buildings show.

“It was a pancake collapse all the way to the cellar floor,” Vilenchik said. “We are going to continuously review and research property profiles to understand the history of the building, certificate of occupancy, and all other records.”

The New York Post reports:

A woman who lives next to the Financial District parking garage that collapsed Tuesday was home during the destruction which left a gaping hole in one of her apartment walls.

“There were a lot of really big bangs first. Then part of the wall started coming down,” Sandy Imhoff, whose second-floor apartment shared a wall with the Ann Street garage, told The Post. Imhoff fled outside, but said her two cats were still inside her apartment.

Officials said the parking garage building had active violations dating back to 2003, but was not under construction. Imhoff, however, said she heard what sounded like construction “banging” coming from the garage around 10 a.m., just six hours before the collapse.

The New York Times reports:



Cicero Clamor, 39, an art director who works on the ninth floor of a building on William Street directly next to the garage, said he had heard a rumbling and had run to the window with some colleagues. At first, he said, he thought what he had heard was an earthquake until he saw “cars collapsing on top of each other.”

“We gathered our belongings and got out of there,” Mr. Clamor said. Sebastian Consoli, 19, a marketing major at Pace University, which is near the collapse site, was taking a nap in his dormitory next to the garage when he was suddenly woken about 4 p.m. by what he described as a “seven-to-10-second-long boom.

The dorm’s residents evacuated quickly. The school offered to provide accommodations for anyone who could not find a place to sleep, he said.

Tags

© joemygod.com 2025