Residents were forced to flee as a high-rise apartment building in New York’s Bronx borough partially collapsed following a suspected gas explosion.
The blast happened at YCHA’s Mitchel Houses on Alexander Avenue just after 8am, according to ABC 7.
During a morning press conference, Mayor Eric Adams confirmed that there were no deaths or injuries as a result of the collapse.
First responders used dogs and drones to sift through the rubble to make sure no one was hurt down below. There have been no reports of injuries.
According to the New York Fire Department, a gas explosion caused an incinerator shaft attached to the building to collapse. The rest of the 17-story building appear to have been left unaffected. No damage has been reported to any of the apartments.
"The fact that half of the building is gone and you felt it, it's like, luckily, I asked somebody, I asked was anybody injured? No injuries occurred. Luckily, everybody was able to get out safe. But feeling it and the intensity, and going downstairs, you could barely go downstairs, everybody is trying to go downstairs. People were carrying babies, people got no shoes on, got no coats, no hats, it's cold outside," a resident told ABC7.
Adams said the city was still clearing the area and ensuring the building is safe, but said that residents will be allowed to return to their apartments once they finish their inspection.
In the meantime, traffic and pedestrian restrictions have been established near the site of the collapse while crews continue their work to ensure the site is safe. Adams asked that pedestrians avoid the collapse site.
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson said the explosion happened in the building’s boiler room.
“There were no fatalities and no injuries as we have learned that this happened in the boiler room,” she said at the news conference.
The mayor said an investigation into the cause of the collapse is ongoing.
A neighbor who had called the city to report seeing smoke near the building witnessed the explosion and subsequent collapse.
“I was explaining to the lady what I saw, and she was like, ‘Hold on, let me transfer you to the fire department,’” she told WCBS. “Before she was about to do the transfer, the whole building just – you heard a loud boom, and the thing just exploded. And it fall down just like that.”
Another resident told ABC 7 that the explosion sounded “like a bomb.”
"My mom came knocking on my door and we ran out as soon as we could. I had no shoes on, but it sounded very urgent," a third resident said.
In addition to. the FDNY and the NYPD, the city’s Buildings Department and the Department of Environmental Protection responded to the scene. Investigators determined that the explosion also destroyed an underground water main.
Con Edison has shut off gas to the site while crews continue their work.
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