Building inspectors were still trying to determine the cause of the deadly collapse of the parking building on Wednesday, using cranes to pull cars one by one from the rubble of the century-old building.
Work also continued to recover the body of a garage worker, presumed dead under tons of concrete and crumpled vehicles (late Wednesday night it was reported that the body had been rescued).
“Right now we are transitioning to a safe way to bring the building down,” Zach Iscol, Emergency Management Commissioner, told a news conference a day after the multi-level car park collapsed just as a flow of customers were returning. from work to pick up their cars.
It was a delicate operation to remove up to 90 vehicles scattered on the upper floor of the structure and among tons of shattered concrete.
According to a preliminary investigation, all three floors of the garage partially or completely collapsed, according to the city Department of Buildings. The rear wall of the garage partially collapsed and the front façade appeared to have inflated.
According to the authorities, the recovery efforts were hampered by the possibility that the ongoing works would further destabilize the structure and make it difficult for the victim to recover.
IT MAY INTEREST YOU:
Two decades ago, city building inspectors sued the owner for failing to properly maintain the building, only to find that there were “cracks and defects” in the concrete. A more recent inspection, conducted in the fall of 2013, showed no further structural problems, according to an update the Department of Buildings provided Wednesday afternoon.
As of last year, parking garages in some parts of Manhattan were required to undergo structural inspections and submit a report to the city by the end of 2023, with additional inspections at least once every six years. City officials said the garage owners had not yet complied.
“There’s an investigation into what exactly happened here and making sure there’s something we could put in place to prevent something like this from happening,” Mayor Eric Adams said.
Theories abounded, and authorities said they would consider all possible explanations, including the possibility that the structural integrity of older parking structures was undermined by today’s fleets of larger and heavier SUVs.
The mayor said it might be a matter worth investigating.
“We live in a new environment and we have to constantly analyze and update everything from weight capacity to how many cars can be in there,” Adams said.
The garage collapsed around 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, just a few blocks from City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Pace University had evacuated an adjacent dormitory and classroom building and canceled all evening classes while it assessed the safety of the buildings.
City inspectors informed the university that it could resume use of the buildings, although the university said it would hold some classes online for now and staff would work remotely, said Jerry McKinstry, a university spokesman.
In all, six nearby buildings were under evacuation orders pending inspection, according to city officials.
The Building Department said that in 2009, the garage’s owners were cited for failing to maintain the building due to cracks and defects in the concrete. The officials ordered the building owner to hire a professional engineer and correct the violations. The owners began compliance in January 2010 and submitted applications to make structural repairs and install 34 car lifts in the building.
In November 2011, a city inspection found the building’s interior maintenance to be “in good condition.” But city officials said they never received the required certificates of correction for previous violations, even though the building’s owner paid all associated fines.
The mayor said the body of the man killed in the cave-in was discovered by a dog-like robot deployed by the Fire Department to search the ruins.
“We didn’t want to send people in there. We couldn’t even send a cadaver dog in there because that cadaver dog would have gone in there and could have collapsed and hurt someone,” Adams said.
The mayor used the tragedy to defend his decision last week to allow his Police Department to use the robotic canines after criticism.
“If we didn’t have that robotic dog, we would have endangered those firefighters. That was how we found the person who is still there,” he said.
Some parking lot regulars returned to the building to see if their cars had been recovered and to pay their respects to the deceased worker, who they said was always kind.
“Every morning I would see it,” said Ahmed Scott, a regular at the parking lot. “When I was leaving that morning, the last time we saw each other, we smiled, we greeted each other. See you in the afternoon, in the same place, at the same time.
Adam Cohen, who lives in a building near the parking structure, said his family has not been allowed to return home. A nearby hotel was also temporarily closed as a precaution.
Cohen held up a photo of the parking garage’s upper deck and pointed to his Nissan Pathfinder, which had been swallowed by a massive fissure, its rear end pointing skyward.
