Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Tenants describe Bronx building collapse as ‘disaster from hell’

New York Daily News
2023/12/12
Firefighters respond to a partial building collapse on West Burnside Avenue and Phelan Place in the Bronx, New York City, on Monday, Dec. 11, 2023. 
- Gardiner Anderson/New York Daily News/TNS

NEW YORK — When a seven-story Bronx apartment building partially collapsed Monday afternoon, creating a jaw-dropping scene of devastation, some residents were away on vacation, others at work and still others were at home, forced to spring into action to save themselves.

“Let’s go, let’s go, just leave everything,” tenant Sadie Martinez recounted telling her brother before they snatched up her 1-year-old and the family dog. “I was scared for my baby, not me.”

There was no immediate warning the building would crumble, but Martinez recalled hearing a loud noise that afternoon as she was preparing food.

“I heard like a boom, and you know when the wind is hard? I heard that at the same time,” she told the New York Daily News. “I thought it was an earthquake or they were fixing the street.”

Miraculously, no one among the building’s 46 households was killed or seriously injured. A small army of first responders confirmed no one was trapped under the 12-foot pile of rubble at Billingsley Terrace and West Burnside Avenue in Morris Heights.

Still, residents were left Tuesday to cope with trauma and uncertainty about their futures.

Jacqueline Tomlinson was in bed in her sixth-floor apartment when she felt a “big shake.” Moments later, her son, who was outside smoking, called her on the phone.

“He said, ‘Mom, get out, the whole front of the building collapsed,’ ” said Tomlinson, 64. “So I just grabbed my coat and I ran outside and and I haven’t been able to go back in since.”

Another resident feared for the life of a neighbor’s ailing mom.

“My neighbor called me and she was crying frantically,” said tenant Renee Glasford, 48. “She wanted to know where my mom was because she has dementia.”

Fortunately, Glasford’s mother was with her, and the two made their way back home.

“When we got to the neighborhood, it was a disaster from hell,” she said. “I was devastated.”

The building had been flagged for more than 100 building violations, according to city records, with over 25 complaints sent to city agencies over the past month.

Two people suffered minor injuries as they escaped Monday’s carnage.

While harm to humans was mercifully minimal, some tenants still have loved ones in the building: their pets.

“My two cats are inside,” said Ivan Schoop, 32, who lives on the sixth floor with his father and was at work when the building fell.

Tomlinson is worried about her feline, Panda, who is “probably starving.”

“My dog is still trapped in the apartment. There are other people who were able to go get their dogs, but they told us we could not,” said Glasford, who is desperate to get to Sparky.

She added that the pet’s company is especially helpful to her mother with dementia.

The Red Cross says it has provided 153 displaced residents with emergency assistance, including temporary housing and meals. Red Cross workers will be on hand to assist tenants with disaster health services, including mental health, the organization said in a statement.

The tenants are now scattered throughout the city at hotels and relatives’ homes with none of their possessions, missing school and work as the holidays are on the way.

Glasford was put into a hotel in Brooklyn with her mother, sister and 9-year-old son, who wasn’t able to go to school Tuesday.

“They didn’t get us here until late, there’s no way he could have come back up,” she said.

Sadie Martinez said her family is staying with an uncle, but they have none of their possessions and have not heard if or when they will get them back.

The items cover “everything — memories personal papers, Christmas gifts,” she said.

Even with a tough, unknown road ahead, residents feel fortunate that a bad situation didn’t end up being tragic.

“That was one of my biggest things, I was hoping that no one got hurt,” said Glasford. “I’m happy no one got hurt.”

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(New York Daily News staff writer Téa Kvetenadze contributed to this story.)

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Bronx apartment building partially collapses with people inside: police
New York Daily News
2023/12/11


NEW YORK — An entire corner of a six-story Bronx apartment building collapsed Monday, officials said.

First responders raced to the scene of the destruction on Billingsley Terrace near Phelan Place in Morris Heights just before 3:40 p.m. EST, according to police.

A man who works in a bodega across the street watched as two men worked on the building, which a Department of Buildings source said is under construction inside and out.

“Before it came down, the scaffolding started creaking, then the whole thing started coming apart,” said Ahmed Bendary, 23. “People were screaming.”

One of the men working on the building quickly left as warning noises started, but the other kept on drilling.

“When it started coming down, he jumped immediately and ran across the street,” said Bendary. “It just missed him. He was almost killed.”

Bendary stepped outside and watched as a line of bedrooms fell to the street below.

“Big rocks started coming down from the building,” he recalled. “Then it went down floor by floor in a second.”

Numerous people were inside when the northeast corner of the 47-unit building crumbled, officials said.

The rest of the building was evacuated after the collapse.

A police spokesperson described to the scene as “chaotic” as first responders continued to search debris for any trapped people.

“It was like an action movie,” Bendary said of the collapse. “It was like something that happened at Palestine.”

In a post on X about an hour after the collapse, FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said there were no immediately reported injuries but members of the Fire Department, including a K-9 team, were still canvassing the rubble for potential victims.

The building has 103 open violations with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, records show.

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© New York Daily News

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