A Brooklyn building collapse has killed eight people, including two children, after a three-storey apartment block in Flatbush fell into an excavation pit beside a construction site on Wednesday afternoon.
Key Points
- Brooklyn building collapse — the three-storey building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue came down on Wednesday afternoon, falling into an adjacent excavation site.
- Eight people were killed, including two children and two construction workers, and at least 18 others were injured, including four firefighters.
- Rescue operations ended on Thursday after the last victim was freed from the wreckage, with about 250 firefighters working the scene.
- Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered a review of about 100 building sites linked to five companies connected with the project.
The building, built in 1930, held four apartments and a commercial space on the ground floor. It collapsed at about 4 p.m. on Wednesday, as construction workers were digging at the empty lot next door at 2625 Bedford Avenue for a new building. Two deaths were announced on Wednesday, and six more people were found dead in the wreckage or died later from their injuries on Thursday.
The collapse was reported at 4:01 p.m. Firefighters worked through the night and through torrential rain on Thursday, searching the rubble for anyone still trapped. The fire department ended rescue operations on Thursday after the last victim was freed, and investigators began what officials said could be a long search for the cause.
How the building came down
The cause has not been determined, but attention has fallen quickly on the excavation next door. The city’s Department of Buildings said in a vacate order issued on Thursday that the collapse was caused by unsafe construction work at the Bedford Avenue site, with the building falling all the way to the ground and sections landing in the lot. Records show the Flatbush walk-up had no structural complaints on file until demolition began on the neighbouring lot in September 2025, and excavation followed.
The department is also investigating an anonymous complaint filed a couple of hours after the collapse, claiming contractors at the neighbouring site were digging too close to the doomed apartments. Mamdani said the city would examine five companies associated with the construction site and about 100 more sites connected with those entities. The one-storey building previously on the neighbouring site was demolished earlier this year, and the site was acquired in 2024 for $4 million.
The victims
The dead and injured included people from Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Trinidad, the mayor said, and the building was home to several immigrant families. Two Ecuadoreans were among the dead — José Luis Caguana Cosquillo and Gabriel Ariolfo Siguencia Yupa, according to Ecuador’s consulate in New York. Two Colombian children and an adult were also killed, according to Colombia’s consulate.
Seven children were among the injured, the fire commissioner said, and four people were taken to hospital in critical condition. “I am heartbroken that eight New Yorkers have now lost their lives and at least 17 have been injured, including three firefighters,” Mamdani said on Thursday.
The investigation widens
The investigation is expected to take time. Construction safety expert Glenn Corbett of John Jay College told the Associated Press it was way too early to know what caused the accident, and the city’s Department of Buildings has opened its own investigation alongside the vacate order. No criminal charges have been announced, and officials have stressed that the cause has not yet been determined.
What happens next will be watched closely across the city. The review of about 100 sites linked to the five companies is under way, and its findings could shape how New York oversees excavation work beside occupied buildings. For the families who lived in the four apartments at 1321 Flatbush Avenue, the immediate loss is their homes, destroyed in seconds on Wednesday afternoon.
For background on New York politics, see our report on the House passing the funding bill that ended the longest government shutdown, and on President Trump marking Veterans Day at Arlington. More in our US News section.
Sources: Associated Press via Gray Media, “Hunt for clues in deadly Brooklyn building collapse will take time”; Reuters, “New York City building collapse kills 8; mayor expands probe”.