Two Dead, 17 Hurt as Brooklyn Apartment Building Collapses in Flatbush

At least two people were killed and 17 others were injured Wednesday when a three-story residential building collapsed in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, tearing the side off the building next to it, New York City officials said.

The collapse happened just after 4 p.m. Eastern time at 1321 Flatbush Avenue, near Bedford Avenue. The New York Police Department said the building came down completely while it was occupied, and that the side of the adjacent building at 1323 Flatbush Avenue was ripped away. Photos and video from the scene showed the exposed insides of stairwells and apartments in the neighboring building. The cause is under investigation.

The lot next to the two buildings was vacant and under construction, and officials said multiple people from both the collapsed building and the construction site were trapped. More than 250 firefighters and emergency medical workers responded. FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said a fire company that happened to be in the neighborhood reached the site in less than a minute. "They encountered people trapped in the adjacent building that was part of the collapse. They immediately took action and removed those people from danger," he said.

Of the 17 people hurt, seven were children, officials said. Four were in critical condition and 13 were stable, including one firefighter with minor injuries. The ages of the two people who died had not been released late Wednesday. CBS News New York cameras captured rescuers pulling one survivor from the rubble at about 6:15 p.m. A man at the scene said the survivor was his pregnant wife.

FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said investigators do not know how many people may still be in the collapse zone or how many are missing. "We know that we're not finished here, and we will likely not be finished for quite some time," she said. Esposito said crews would be on site for several days until the entire pile is searched. Firefighters were sifting through debris by hand and breaking through a collapsed wall to reach spaces underneath, while search dogs worked the wreckage.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani described a dangerous rescue at a press conference Wednesday evening. "This has been an incredibly challenging and fast-moving situation, with precarious wreckage to navigate and dangerous voids beneath the surface," he said. "This type of rescue is exactly what the FDNY trains for."

City records raise questions investigators are likely to look at. The Department of Buildings issued a violation in April to a demolition contractor at the vacant lot next door, 2625 Bedford Avenue, after inspectors said a building on that site had been demolished despite a stop-work order. That violation is now listed as resolved, and the notice does not say why the city issued it. The Buildings commissioner and investigators were sent to the scene to help with recovery and to check the stability of nearby buildings.

Flatbush Avenue was closed between Clarendon Road and Bedford Avenue, and drivers were told to avoid the area. The American Red Cross and the city's emergency management office opened a reception center for displaced residents at the Flatbush YMCA, where the Red Cross said it had registered eight adults and two children by Wednesday night. Anyone who cannot reach a person who may have been affected was asked to call 311, or 212-639-9675 from outside New York City.