Terrified pedestrians and school bus narrowly avoid disaster as six-story Bronx building collapses, ripping open families’ homes

Pedestrians walking down a Bronx street narrowly escaped their lives when part of a six-story building crumbled to the ground just feet away from them Monday afternoon.

Surveillance footage shows a school bus passing nearby as the apartment building suddenly gives way without warning, sending scaffolding and tons of concrete, bricks and twisted metal into the street below.

Passersby could be seen taking cover from the carnage that occurred without warning in the Morris Heights neighborhood around 3:30 p.m., while the school run was in full swing.

Photos from the scene showed the bare walls of several units in the apartment complex, some completely exposed.

On the ground floor it was a scene of complete destruction, with a pile of rubble underneath.

A scaffolding shed at the base of the building also collapsed during the collapse and was surrounded by a pile of sheet metal, bricks, concrete and metal bars.

There were no reports of injuries early this evening and the owner of the ground-floor store said the people inside got out safely, city officials said.

New York Mayor Eric Adams praised the quick response of emergency services who arrived on the scene within 96 seconds.

Search crews scoured the rubble Monday looking for anyone trapped.

Firefighters used buckets, power tools and heavy equipment to clear the rubble, while officials kept an eye on the parts of the building still standing.

“Our main goal is to get to the bottom of that pile,” Fire Chief John Hodgens said at a news conference. “We’ll stay here until it’s at street level, just to make sure there are victims down there, hopefully we can get to them in time.”

“We’re digging a tunnel into that mess as safely as we can,” Hodgens explained. “Firefighters are in a dangerous position right now. We don’t know what caused this corner of this building to collapse. We don’t know if anything will happen.’

As rescuers worked at the scene, a search dog sifted through the pile of rubble, which included twisted and jumbled metal from scaffolding that had surrounded part of the building. There were facade repairs to the building.

A portrait hung on the wall and was visible in one of the apartment walls. In another, what looked like a bed sat a few feet away from the unprotected, exposed edge of the floor.

Elsewhere, an armchair sat on a floor that tilted precariously downward, like the top of an embedded box.

One of the collapsed rooms turned out to be a children’s room. A small pink jacket hung on a hook. Boxes of toys and clothes were visible on cupboards that remained on the remaining parts of the floor.

Firefighters could see bright lights shining into apartment windows from high ladders.

At least one drone could also be seen flying three feet away from where the wall had fallen onto the street.

Firefighters carted away the rubble in buckets and used circular saws to cut through the collapsed scaffolding. But then the firefighters retreated from the rubble, at least for a while.

According to the Buildings Department, inspectors were on site to investigate.

A 2020 inspection found cracked brick and loose, damaged mortar on the building’s facade, Department of Buildings records show.

Commissioner Jimmy Oddo said Monday that work had begun, but he did not believe any workers were present at the time of the collapse.

“I want to be clear: unsafe facade conditions are not the same as an unsafe building,” he said at the press conference. Although the property had seven unresolved violations, they were not structural, he said.

Oddo said officials would closely examine the drawings related to the collapsed area. The images were submitted in the context of the licensing for the facade work.

An employee at a nearby deli, Julian Rodriguez, said he was standing behind the counter when he heard people shouting about a collapsing building.

“When I went outside, all you saw was rubble and a cloud of smoke on the street,” said Rodriguez, 22. “And you could see inside the building: people’s beds, their doors, closets, lights, everything. It was really scary.’

Building resident Norma Arias told The New York Times that she had just returned from buying cilantro at the bodega when she heard a loud boom in her first-floor apartment and a neighbor shouting, “Everyone needs to get out.” The building is collapsing.’

“I almost died during that collapse,” Arias told the newspaper.

Department of Buildings records show the building dates to 1927 and includes about four dozen apartments.

The NYPD advised the public to avoid the area of ​​West Burnside Avenue between Osborne Place and Phelan Place in the Bronx.

New York City Emergency Management also warned of traffic delays and road closures in the area.

There were no reports of injuries early in the evening, but the fire brigade continued to search.

“We have no reports of injuries at this time, but our members, including our K-9 team, are looking for people who are trapped,” Fire Chief Laura Kavanagh said on X just before 5 p.m.