Flatbush Building Collapse: Full Stop-Work Order Issued at Adjacent Site as Search Continues

The toll in the Flatbush collapse stood at two dead and 17 injured as of the latest official briefing, with rescuers still working through unstable rubble. The three-story building at 1321 Flatbush Ave. fell into an excavation pit at 2625 Bedford Ave. just after 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11.

FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said the number of victims could change "by the minute." Fire officials still do not know how many people were inside, and they are coordinating with the NYPD on missing-person reports. About 250 firefighters and EMS personnel responded, along with K-9 units from the FDNY and NYPD.

The stop-work order and the permit trail

The Department of Buildings said a full stop-work order has been issued for the excavation site. Its engineers are doing structural stability inspections of nearby buildings.

The department said the developers held an active permit for excavation and foundation work. Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said workers were excavating the empty lot when the building came down.

Officials said the work was tied to an approved three-story building. Plans for a nine-story mixed-use building had been submitted but not approved.

Buildings Department records show earthwork and support-of-excavation permits were issued Sept. 9, with Townhouse Builders listed as contractor on both. Excavation was permitted to a depth of 14 feet. Jieming Wang, a professional engineer with LMW Engineering Group of Linden, N.J., is listed as engineer on the support-of-excavation filing. The project required special inspection of excavation sheeting, shoring and bracing.

Violations on the same lot

City records also show trouble at the site months before the collapse. The same site drew a violation in April after inspectors said a building there had been torn down despite a city order halting demolition. PIX11, citing city records, identified the citation as a Class 1 violation and reported that N Tech Design of America, the demolition firm working at the neighboring site, allegedly demolished a one-story building while the order was active. The New York Times reported that in March, the Department of Buildings ordered the property owner to halt demolition work after finding inadequate protection for nearby properties, and that the order was fully lifted in August after the department found the violations had been corrected.

In May, according to Spectrum News NY1, the department recorded that work had continued while a stop-work order was in effect, that neighboring properties lacked proper overhead protection, and that the work did not conform to approved construction drawings.

No one has said these violations caused the collapse. It was not immediately clear whether the collapse was connected to the demolition next door. The Department of Buildings is investigating, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the department and law enforcement will lead the inquiry. NBC New York reported that the owner of the construction site, a limited liability company run by Robert Fischman and his associates, did not immediately respond to messages, and that it was unable to reach the owner of the collapsed building.

The building that fell dates to 1930. A 1980 certificate of occupancy lists commercial space on the ground floor and two apartments on each of the upper floors. The collapse also tore the wall off an adjacent three-story building, exposing a staircase, a bedroom and closets.

Rescues and a first victim named

Firefighters pulled at least two people out alive, including one more than two hours after the collapse, at about 6:30 p.m. A man told WABC that his pregnant wife was among those rescued. "She is alive, she is still alive. I am very happy," he said.

The FDNY has not released the names or ages of the dead, or said whether any children are among them. Seven children were among the victims, according to the FDNY, and four people were critically injured. One firefighter suffered minor injuries.

A family member has identified one victim. Carlos Caguana told NBC New York that his brother, Jose Luis Caguana, 26, was killed. He said his brother was an Ecuadorian immigrant who had lived in the U.S. about six years and worked construction to support his family. Caguana's wife is pregnant and due soon, and the couple has another young child. "He was the sole provider for the family," Carlos Caguana said. The FDNY has not confirmed the identification.

Mamdani described the scene as "an incredibly challenging and fast moving situation with precarious wreckage to navigate and dangerous voids beneath the surface." Bonsignore said crews would "continue to look until we find everybody."

The cause of the collapse is under investigation, and investigators had not determined whether excavation or support-of-excavation work at the adjacent site contributed to it. Fire officials said the search operation would likely continue for days.