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New York City crane collapse kills 4
BY ANDREW STRICKLER | andrew.strickler@newsday.com
12:45 AM EDT, March 16, 2008
A crane tower at an East Side construction site toppled out of a blue sky without warning Saturday, killing four construction workers and injuring at least eight, three of them critically, authorities said.
One woman remained unaccounted for Saturday night.
The violent collapse at a site that has drawn complaints from neighbors sent a massive cloud of debris and smoke into the air, damaged buildings and cars, and triggered a rescue effort that stretched into the night.
The construction site has been cited 13 times for violations since January 2006, said city officials, who added that the number was not unusual.
Abeer Shofani, 33, was asleep in a friend's apartment on East 50th Street when she awoke to a sound she described as "big trucks crashing down off a highway ramp."
"I thought it was thunder but it kept going on and on and on," she said. Shofani, a singer, rushed outside to a scene of pandemonium: overturned and smashed cars, pulverized brick and wood, the air darkened with choking dust.
"I walked out in tears," she said.
The towering metal structure, which stood next to a partially completed residential building on the north side of 51st Street near Second Avenue, toppled at 2:22 p.m. under calm winds. As it fell south, the lower section of the tower, about 19 stories high, clipped a corner of a brick residential building across the street, seriously damaging apartments but causing no serious injuries to residents, officials said.
The crash snapped the crane and sent its upper section sailing south, where it crashed into two buildings on East 50th Street and landed on a town house, which contained apartments, offices and a bar. The five-story town house was destroyed.
At least one man in the town house was pulled out alive but seriously injured, while rescue workers continued to search for a woman believed to be inside when the building came down, fire officials said.
"This is going to be a painstaking, hand operation as we try to remove the rubble," said New York Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta.
The four confirmed killed were construction workers at 303 E. 51st St., where construction crews have built about 19 stories of a concrete-and-metal frame of a planned 43-story residential building. The three critically injured victims were taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, where another person was listed in serious condition, fire officials said. Others were treated at Lenox Hill Hospital and Metropolitan Hospital Center. Five firefighters also sustained minor injuries.
"It is a horrible situation. It's very gory; there is blood in the street," said incoming New York Gov. David Paterson, who arrived at the crash scene just before sunset. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the construction crash "one of the worst the city has had."
Stephen Kaplan, who owns the Reliance Construction Group, which manages the site's construction, told The Associated Press a piece of steel fell and sheared off one of the ties holding the crane.
"It was an absolute freak accident," Kaplan said.
Kerry Walker, a retired iron worker whose family owns the crushed town house, said he had been concerned by the feverish pace of work at the nearby tower. Walker said he recently spoke with his brother about the state of the site. "I told my brother if you don't hear from me next week it's because the crane fell through my house. I was kidding," he said.
A city Department of Buildings official said the crane was inspected Friday and that the agency issued Reliance a variance to use it Saturday to lift a new section to lengthen the tower. The crane was in that process, known as "jumping," when it fell, officials said.
Emergency workers planned to work deliberately to avoid causing further environmental damage and in case there were still missing people in the rubble, a fire official said.
Late Saturday night, a crane was brought in to help in the disassembly of the collapsed crane.
City officials opened a shelter for displaced residents, at a school on East 57th Street. The cleanup effort is expected to take several days.
John LaGreco, 38, the owner of Fubar, which was on the ground floor of the destroyed building, identified one of those injured as Juan Perez, who he said worked as a porter at the bar, which was closed at the time of the accident. LaGreco said Perez was at Bellevue being treated for a broken leg.
"He's one of the core employees of my business and I can't thank the Lord enough for him to still be alive," he said. LaGreco said a female cousin of a seriously injured male resident of the building was missing.
Leslie, 49, who would give only her first name, was standing at East 51st Street and Second Avenue when she heard a metallic "clink-clink."
"It was like rolling clouds of dust and debris down the street," said Leslie, an accountant. "I saw part of the structure flying and I said, 'How do I run fast enough?'"
Sarah Portlock, Patrick Falby and staff writer Sophia Chang contributed to this story.
Video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUVnbJ2Rf5I
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