According to fire officials, two columns buckled on the 21st and 22nd floors, and the floor sagged between the 21st and 26th floors.
New York City skyscraper at risk of collapse on 42nd, prompting evacuations
A 38-story New York City skyscraper is at risk of collapsing on 42nd Street. Hundreds of people have been evacuated.
NEW YORK – A 38-story office tower in midtown Manhattan is in danger of collapsing and an evacuation has been called, fire officials announced on July 7.
Just before 8 a.m., the New York City Fire Department received a report of bricks falling from a high-rise building currently under construction on East 42nd Street between Second and Third Avenues. According to fire officials who arrived, two pillars on the 21st and 22nd floors were buckled, and the floor between the 21st and 26th floors was sagging.
City Department of Buildings spokesman David Maggiotto said agency inspectors were called to the scene to investigate reports of a broken steel beam on the building’s 21st floor. Mr Maggiotto said the site is a permitted construction site to convert existing commercial offices into residential units.
Several addresses on 42nd Street and 43rd Street in the neighborhood were evacuated as a precaution, the fire department said.
According to the FDNY, there are no reports of injuries at this time as surgery continues. City officials said emergency personnel were on scene and told residents to use alternate routes as traffic delays were expected.
New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani said this was a “very serious” and “incredibly complex” situation as first responders and city Department of Buildings officials worked to secure the area and harden the effects of structural damage.
“The building remains unstable,” Mamdani said at an afternoon news conference near the site in midtown Manhattan. “Since arriving on scene, we have witnessed further movement on one of the compromised columns.”
Mamdani said the city has set up a “freeze zone” temporarily closed to pedestrians and vehicles from 40th to 45th Streets between First and Third Avenues. Police have been deployed to secure the area and authorities are encouraging people to avoid the area.
Earlier, Mamdani said many nearby high-rise buildings had been evacuated. The school, which serves about 400 children, was also evacuated, and most of 42nd and 43rd Streets in the area were closed to pedestrian and vehicle traffic, he said at a morning news conference.
Inside the building, Mamdani said authorities were assessing the impact, including using drones, while awaiting the arrival of materials to repair the affected floors. If the floor is determined to be safe, engineers can reinforce the building to make it safer, he said.
This building is the former Pfizer building. It is located just east of major transportation hubs, Grand Central Terminal and the iconic Chrysler Building, both on 42nd Street. It is also the street west of the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan.
The building’s developer, Metroloft, said in a statement that it was working closely with the building department to understand the full extent of the situation.
The Department of Buildings said on social media that a press conference is scheduled for further updates.
Chaos spreads near evacuated New York City buildings
In Midtown, dozens of onlookers watched the blocked off streets, trying to take pictures of the building next to television cameras set up against police barricades.
Meanwhile, cars piled into the busy surrounding roads, trying to manage the road closures due to evacuations. Construction workers sat around waiting for further orders as car alarms and police sirens blared in the background.
