NYC Parking Garage Collapse Kills 1, Injures Multiple People

A parking garage partially collapsed in New York City's Financial District, pancaking cars and resulting in one death and multiple injuries.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams confirmed during a press conference on Tuesday evening that one person had been killed at the structure in lower Manhattan. John Esposito, chief of fire operations for the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) said that at least five others had been injured after multiple floors of the garage collapsed and crushed cars inside.

"So far, we have six patients, there were six workers in the building at the time of the collapse," Esposito said. "Four of them have been transported to the hospital in stable condition. We have one patient that has died. And we had one patient that refused medical attention."

Esposito said that the rescue operation was "extremely dangerous" for firefighters, who were pulled from the building due to the possibility of a further collapse. A search for survivors inside the garage continued with the help of a "robot dog" and drones.

"We had firefighters inside the building conducting searches," said Esposito. "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."

"We deployed our robot dog into the building," he continued. "They were able to give us video inside and then we were able to fly drones inside to conduct an assessment and conduct searches."

In an email to Newsweek shortly before the press conference, FDNY said emergency workers arrived to perform the "major technical rescue" at around 4:15 p.m. local time.

The garage is near the campus of Pace University, which announced that buildings had been evacuated and classes had been canceled.

New York City Police Department Commissioner Keechant Sewell said that authorities had "no reason to believe" that the incident was "anything other than a structural collapse," although an investigation is ongoing.

Kazimir Vilenchik, acting commissioner of New York City Department of Buildings, said drone images determined that the four-story building had "pancaked all the way to the cellar floor."

The cause of the collapse has not been determined. Adams said there were "no open violations" at the garage.

Officials have asked the public to avoid the area, with the city's official emergency notification system telling residents to "expect the presence of debris, smoke, dust, emergency vehicles, and traffic" nearby.

"Due to an emergency response to a structural collapse, please avoid the area of Ann Street, between Nassau Street & William Street in lower Manhattan," Adams' office tweeted earlier, while sharing a short video of emergency workers on the scene.