Horror struck in Lower Manhattan in New York City on Tuesday after a parking garage collapsed, leaving five injured and one dead.
The roof of a garage building at 35 Ann Street folded inward as the structure collapsed below it. Several videos and photographs of the scene began circulating on social media on Tuesday afternoon.
People flee in horror as a parking garage in NY City’s lower Manhattan collapses killing at least one worker and injuring five other pic.twitter.com/yVVjt0OveM
— 1776 (@TheWakeninq) April 19, 2023
Parking garage collapses in Manhattan pic.twitter.com/mmDT9f0YLM
— • ᗰISᑕᕼIᗴᖴ ™ • (@4Mischief) April 18, 2023
All six of the injured were workers of the parking garage and were inside the building at the time of the incident, New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Chief John Esposito said during a press conference.
Four people were sent to the hospital for medical attention. One of the injured workers refused medical treatment at the scene.
Chaos at the scene. Credit: Getty Images.
Pace University, which bordered the garage, was also evacuated.
FDNY officials provide an update on a parking garage collapse in Lower Manhattan https://t.co/nTinhAuMZy
— FDNY (@FDNY) April 18, 2023
“We had firefighters inside the building conducting searches,” Esposito said. “The building was continuing to collapse. We made the decision to remove all our people from the building. Our robotics unit happened to be nearby; they were on scene very quickly.”
Robot dogs used by FDNY recorded video from inside the garage and led the way for drones to zoom in and survey the scene, NYC Mayor Eric Adams said, noting that the building at the time was deemed “completely unstable.”
The FDNY’s robot dog is a Dalmatian – it’s checking the parking garage collapse in lower Manhattan pic.twitter.com/OeHuAyvm9t
— LilEsBella ?? (@LilEsBella) April 18, 2023
FDNY confirmed the garage floors were essentially large concrete slabs that crushed the cars while collapsing. They noted that this would be a “prolonged operation.”
New York Police Commission stated that there was “no reason to believe that this was anything other than a structural collapse” but noted that an investigation would be conducted. There were no active violations with the garage at the time of the collapse.