Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Building Collapse in East Harlem

1010 WINS reports that a building at 1861 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan partially collapsed around 11:30 this morning. The building was under "renovation." No injuries were reported.

"There were work crews inside the building at the time of the collapse. Welders working on the first floor heard a rumble and saw dust and just ran for it, 1010 WINS Juliet Papa reported. No one was living in the building at the time, and all 12 workers have been accounted for."

Interesting thing is that the DOB website reports that the cause was "FAILURE TO CARRY OUT DEMO IN SAFE & PROPER MANNER," however, the permits applied for were alteration permits.

Not to worry...the DOB Command Team is on the case...

And one final thing: The person who owns the property is a Forest Hills developer, and this was a self-certified job.

Photo from 1010Wins.com

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another day....another dollar.....another building collapse! A lot more of them since self certification went into effect!

So what's new at DOB? Nothing...it's business as usual!

Isn't it time NYC totally reorganized DOB and get rid of the malignant practices of one of the most corrupt departments in the city?

It's time to end self certification now!

Nah...Bloomberg said he didn't want any bottlenecks to slow down building in NYC!

Injuries and deaths are OK with the mayor, but slow downs and safety is not!

Anonymous said...

The developer and probably the work crew was Queens based.

This borough is the laboratory for every bad development ill out there.

Fellows, we do not have the resources in Queens to stop this.

Stop ignoring us! Help us! Or the problem will be in your backyard tomorrow. Believe me!

hooper said...

Apparently one of DOB's top priorities when a building collapses is to dispatch a photographer to the scene to capture their heroic reponse.

You have to wonder if they're paying PR people instead of hiring more inspectors. I'm calling for an audit.

Anonymous said...

Hudak is one of DOB's flack PR guys who goes around the borough saying that things are improving within his department!

Yeah! I also believe in the tooth fairy!