The search is over in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and the final toll is the one New Yorkers feared: eight people are dead, including two children aged 9 and 10, and 18 others were injured after a three-story building collapsed into the construction excavation next door on Wednesday afternoon, city officials said.
The Fire Department announced at 3:37 p.m. on Thursday that it had concluded rescue operations throughout the site and determined there were no more victims, ending a search that put more than 250 firefighters and emergency personnel on the rubble for about 24 hours. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said six of the victims were recovered from the debris and two died after being taken to hospital.
Police on Thursday evening identified all eight people killed when the building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue — a shop at street level with apartments above, built in 1930 — gave way shortly after 4 p.m. on Wednesday, November 11, and fell into the open excavation at 2625 Bedford Avenue. The dead are Nicole Daniela Salvada Rodriguez, 9, and her cousin Kevin Santiago Reyes Gonzalez, 10; Gabriel Siguencia, 22; Barry Mamadou, 23; Jose Luis Caguana Cosquillo, 26; Edgar Sapon, 26; Juan Daniel Salvada Guzman, 31; and Ndiaye Mamadou, 31. Two of those killed were construction workers, the mayor said, and the victims came from several countries, including Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago. Ecuador's consulate confirmed two of its citizens were among the dead.
The focus has now shifted from rescue to responsibility. The Department of Buildings has put an early finding in writing: the collapse "was caused by unsafe construction operations at the adjacent property." The department issued a full stop-work order on the excavation site next door and full vacate orders for the neighbouring buildings at 1323, 1325 and 1327 Flatbush Avenue. City records show the excavation site was ordered to stop work in March after inspectors found demolition under way without the required protection for neighbouring properties, and a contractor was cited in April after work was found to have continued anyway; officials say those violations were later corrected and that earlier order was lifted in May.
The Brooklyn District Attorney's office has opened a criminal investigation to determine whether criminal conduct contributed to the collapse. No charges have been announced, and city officials have promised severe criminal penalties for any person or company found responsible. Mayor Mamdani also ordered the Department of Buildings to inspect about 100 other construction sites across the city linked to five entities tied to the project next door.
For the families of Flatbush — a neighbourhood home to many immigrant families — the questions now are the ones investigators must answer: what the city knew about the digging next door, whether the warnings on record were acted on, and who will be held to account for eight lives.
Sources: New York City officials and FDNY briefings (Nov 12–13, 2026) via Associated Press, WABC/ABC7 New York, CBS News New York and NBC New York; The New York Times (Nov 13, 2026) on the criminal investigation; BBC reporting (Nov 13, 2026) on the 100-site inspection sweep.
Post a Comment