Brooklyn building collapse raises questions about city oversight and safety precautions

Resumen detallado

A deadly building collapse in Brooklyn has raised concerns about New York City’s oversight of construction sites.

NEW YORK — Thousands of building construction projects are underway in New York on any given day. The deadly collapse of a building next to one of those work sites has raised questions about the city’s oversight and the safety precautions taken by contractors.

While the investigation is ongoing, some New York officials on Friday called for the hiring of more inspectors by the city’s Department of Buildings. The probe, meanwhile, is likely to focus not only on the building that fell but on an adjacent excavation site and its contractors, who had faced previous lawsuits and complaints.

Eight people were killed Wednesday when the three-story structure containing residential and commercial units in Brooklyn collapsed. It fell into a pit dug by workers excavating the site of another building that was recently demolished. Neighbors had reported feeling vibrations from the construction site, and at least one witness saw bricks falling from the building just moments before it collapsed.

Though it remains unclear how often the excavation site had been inspected, some city officials said Friday that more help is needed.

The Department of Buildings has a vacancy rate of around 9 percent — 168 of its 1,855 authorized positions — according to the city’s comptroller dashboard.

“We must, and we will, ensure that every single one of those positions is immediately filled,” said New York City Council speaker Julie Menin, a Democrat. “This is an unspeakable, horrendous tragedy, and we must meet this moment.”

Democratic City Council member Farah Louis called for aggressive oversight.

“Grief without accountability is not enough,” Louis said. “Buildings do not simply collapse without systemic failures.”

The city has ordered inspections at more than 160 sites in New York that are associated with six entities linked to the construction and demolition site where the building collapsed, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.

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