A portion of the four-story Ann Street structure fell in, leaving cars stacked atop one another and rubble down to street level.
A parking garage on Ann Street in Lower Manhattan collapsed on Tuesday afternoon, killing one person and injuring five others, officials said. Intelligent Car Parking System
Pictures and video from the scene, at 57 Ann Street, between Nassau and William Streets, showed cars pancaked atop one another and dust rising from the wreckage. The collapse appeared to have sent rubble from the top deck down to street level.
One snippet of footage shot from a nearby rooftop showed a cloud of dust rising from below while a distant voice shouted, “Get out! Get out! Get out!” A voice near the camera responded with a single, stunned vulgarity.
Officials initially said they had reports of people being trapped, but Chief John M. Esposito, the Fire Department’s chief of operations, said at a news conference at the collapse site that he believed all the workers at the garage had been accounted for.
Mayor Eric Adams, speaking at the news conference, said that four of those hurt in the cave-in had been hospitalized. He did not specify the nature of their injuries. A fifth person declined medical attention, Mr. Adams said. Officials did not immediately identify the person who was killed in the collapse.
By The New York Times
The Fire Department pulled its emergency services workers away from the site soon after responding, because of concerns about the integrity of the structure’s remains. Officials said they were deploying rescuers using tower ladders to look for victims, as well as a team with drones and a robotic dog.
Buildings Department inspectors were at the scene of the collapse, which occurred around 4 p.m., an agency spokesman said. Fire officials asked that building inspectors examine the property’s structural stability, citing “shaking” and “vibrating.”
The building is owned by Ann Street LLC, according to Buildings Department records. Lance Howard, who is identified as a contact for the company on department records, did not respond to a request for comment.
Kazimir Vilenchik, New York City’s acting buildings commissioner, said at the news conference that the building had several open violations dating back to 2003, although he also indicated that plans had been filed to correct them in 2010.
One from 2003 that is listed as open on the department’s website cites “first-floor ceiling slab cracks” and “missing concrete covering steel beams.” It was unclear on Tuesday whether those conditions had been remedied or might have contributed to the collapse.
In the collapse’s aftermath, emergency vehicles packed the surrounding streets and workers with portable stretchers and cutting tools ducked under yellow police tape to make their way toward the pile of buckled concrete and stacked vehicles.
Cicero Clamor, 39, an art director who works on the ninth floor of a building on William Street directly next to the garage, said he had heard a rumbling and had run to the window with some colleagues. At first, he said, he thought what he had heard was an earthquake until he saw “cars collapsing on top of each other.”
“We gathered our belongings and got out of there,” Mr. Clamor said.
Sebastian Consoli, 19, a marketing major at Pace University, which is near the collapse site, was taking a nap in his dormitory next to the garage when he was suddenly woken about 4 p.m. by what he described as a “seven-to-10-second-long boom.”
“I looked out the window and I saw, just like, the parking garage just collapse, basically,” he said.
He said he saw cars skewed at odd angles on top of the garage. “The floor was basically just super slanted,” he said.
The dorm’s residents evacuated quickly, and two hours later, Mr. Consoli was still waiting with others to be let back inside. The school offered to provide accommodations for anyone who could not find a place to sleep, he said.
Ariel Stern, 32, of Manhattan, a building manager who works about a block away on Ann Street, said that her car was trapped in the wreckage. She arrived there on Tuesday about 11 a.m.
“I usually leave work around 4:30 or 5 p.m.,” she said, explaining that she had been busy and had not come for her car at the usual time. “I’m thankful I was caught up today and I didn’t go in.”
Michael D. Regan, Hurubie Meko and Matthew Haag contributed reporting.
An earlier version of this story misstated the address of the garage. It is 57 Ann Street, not 37 Ann Street.
Vehicle Storage Lift Ed Shanahan is a rewrite reporter and editor covering breaking news and general assignments on the Metro desk. More about Ed Shanahan