New York mayor expands probe after Brooklyn building collapse kills 8

Detailed summary

New York mayor expands probe after Brooklyn building collapse kills eight and injures 18, as rescue teams search rubble and inspect sites. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Rescue teams worked through torrential rain on Nov 12 and found no more victims in the rubble of a New York City apartment building collapse that killed at least eight people.

NEW YORK - Rescue teams worked through torrential rain on Nov 12 and found no more victims in the rubble of a New York City apartment building collapse that killed at least eight people and prompted Mayor Zohran Mamdani to order an investigation into dozens of linked construction sites.

A day after the Nov 11 late-afternoon collapse in the city's Brooklyn borough, Mamdani said the city would examine five companies associated with a construction site adjacent to the collapse and 100 more sites connected with those entities.

The construction site was undergoing excavation work that started earlier in 2026, historical satellite imagery showed. An official notice filed by a construction company in September informed authorities that the earthwork included "rock blasting," official records showed.

Six people were found dead in the wreckage and two others died later from their injuries, city officials told reporters at the scene of the collapse. Two of those killed were children. The six adults killed included two construction workers.

Those injured in the collapse and its aftermath stood at 18, including four of the firefighters who led the rescue effort, officials said.

Municipal building inspectors fanned out across the city to conduct inspections of the other sites "to ensure that if there is anything for New Yorkers to be worried about that we are on the scene and we are doing something about it”, the mayor said at a press conference.

"If there is anyone or any entity operating in this city that bears responsibility for what happened, we will hold them fully accountable," Mamdani said.

The apartment building, which Mamdani said was home to several immigrant families, was built in 1930 and consisted of four residential units, according to official records. Two Ecuadoreans were among the dead.

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