Two structural support beams on the 21st floor of a 37-story under-construction building in Manhattan started buckling Tuesday morning, triggering a mass evacuation, street closures and a large emergency response, officials say.
The FDNY said it got a call around 8 a.m. about bricks falling from the building at 235 East 42nd Street, between Second and Third avenues. The NYPD says it got a 911 call about the incident less than 15 minutes later.
When cops got to the scene, the NYPD says officers were told that construction workers on the 21st floor of the commercial building saw the columns beginning to collapse.
Raw footage from inside, taken by a construction worker, showed crumbling steel beams on the 21st floor.
Another “luxury” rental complex in process. I’d bet the developers 100% knew about the structural issues and just assumed it would be 10-20 years before they became so readily apparent and wanted to cash in and then cash out.
But whoever hid it should be behind bars.
An issue this bad 10 to 20 years could still kill a developer, contractor, or engineering company.
My guess is that there will be someone found at fault and it could include jail time, but a large part of the issue would lie in incompetence instead of adject malice.