Flatbush Collapse Death Toll Reaches at Least 6 as FDNY Says Search Will Last Days

Since the three-story building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue fell into a neighboring construction pit just after 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11, the confirmed death toll has climbed from two to at least six, and the search is still going.

The FDNY said a third body was recovered at 4:45 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, after K-9 units and Con Edison vacuum equipment were brought in. The fourth and fifth victims were found within minutes of each other just after 6 a.m. A sixth followed. Officials have not identified any of the dead or released their ages.

The count is still moving

The Fire Department's tally stands at at least 19 injured, including seven children and one firefighter with minor injuries. Four of the injured are in critical condition, and the rest are stable, the FDNY said.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said eight people died, according to the New York Times' live coverage. The FDNY's statements Thursday morning cited six.

Fire officials have warned the number will likely rise. FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said investigators do not know how many people may still be in the collapse zone or how many are missing.

"We know that we're not finished here, and we will likely not be finished for quite some time," Bonsignore said.

Chief of Department John Esposito put a timeline on it: "We will be here for several days until this entire site is searched for all potential victims."

The search

More than 250 fire and EMS personnel and 69 units responded. Crews have worked through the night, sifting rubble by hand, breaking through a collapsed wall to reach voids underneath, and using canine units, drones, helicopters and excavation machinery.

Esposito said a company already in the neighborhood reached the scene in under a minute and pulled out people trapped in the adjacent building. CBS New York cameras captured rescuers lifting one survivor from the debris around 6:15 p.m. Wednesday. A man at the scene said she was his pregnant wife.

Mamdani called the operation "incredibly challenging and fast-moving," with "precarious wreckage to navigate and dangerous voids beneath the surface."

Flatbush Avenue is closed from Clarendon Road to Bedford Avenue. Anyone unable to reach someone who may have been in the area can call 311, or 212-639-9675 from outside the city.

What the city records show

The collapsed building dates to 1930. City records list four apartments and one commercial unit. The side wall of the adjoining building at 1323 Flatbush Avenue was torn away, leaving a staircase, bedroom and closets exposed to the open air.

The developers of the lot next door held an active permit for excavation and foundation work. Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani told reporters that workers were excavating at the time of the collapse. A full stop-work order is now in place.

The site has a history. A one-story building once stood there. In March, the Department of Buildings ordered the owner to halt demolition after finding inadequate protection for nearby properties. The department fully lifted that order in August, after finding the project team had corrected the violations.

No cause has been established. Mamdani said the Department of Buildings and law enforcement will lead the investigation. The architect, property owner and general contractor listed in city records for the project did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Neighbors wait

People stood on the sidewalk through the early hours Thursday hoping for news. The Rev. Alfred J. Joseph, 72, pastor of La Piscine de Bethesda, a Pentecostal church across the street, pointed to earthquakes in Haiti and Venezuela where survivors were found hours or days later.

"We hope if there is someone in the rubble, they come out alive," he said. "You never know."

Gov. Kathy Hochul said her administration has reached out to families and offered full support.

The open questions are the final count of the dead and missing, which the FDNY says it cannot yet give, and what the investigation finds about the relationship between the excavation and the neighboring building's collapse.