Crane collapse on Manhattan's West Side injures 12 people

A crane that partially collapsed into a neighboring building in Hell’s Kitchen left 12 people injured on Wednesday morning, according to the city's fire department.

Fire officials received a call of a fire shortly before 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to First Deputy Fire Commissioner Joseph Pfeifer. As they were responding to the blaze atop a mixed-use building along 10th Avenue, the top of the crane peeled away from its base and fell 54 stories down. It grazed the side of a neighboring building along the way before crashing to the ground.

“As you can see from the debris on the street, this could have been much worse,” Mayor Eric Adams said from a press conference near the site of the collapse.

Twelve people suffered minor injuries, including nine civilians and three firefighters, the fire department said Thursday morning. The NYPD initially urged people to avoid the surrounding area of the collapse, from 41st to 42nd Streets between 10th and 11th Avenues. Later in the day, the city closed off 10th Avenue between West 34th Street and West 42nd Street and West 42nd Street between 9th Avenue and 10th Avenues.

Most of the fire had been extinguished around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, but officials said they were still operating at a five-alarm capacity to put out the blaze. Part of the difficulty came from the fire coming from so high up the building — requiring more hands on deck. Surrounding buildings were also searched and evacuated by emergency teams.

“I’d like you to picture what was taking place,” Pfeifer said. “The crane operates above the roof line, and on that above roofline there’s a beam that goes on, and that’s carrying the weight of concrete. And that weight of 16 tons is attached by a cable,” he said.

“As a fire heats the cable, the cable weakens to the point that it loses its strength,” he said, leading to the crane’s collapse.

Officials said the fire came from the engine of the cabin as an operator was lifting the concrete. The operator, who safely escaped from the cabin, attempted to extinguish the flames, but became “overwhelmed” as it spread, Pfeifer said.

Department of Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo said the agency would be assessing the structural integrity of the building, as well as the histories of all contractors involved in the construction.

“We don’t have a lot of answers or all the answers. We will get them to you in time,” Oddo said.

The general contractor on the project is Monadnock Construction Inc. The crane owner is listed as NY Crane & Equipment Corp, according to a recent update by the buildings department.

One contractor on the site had another unrelated incident after hitting a Con Edison vault during an excavation, Oddo said.

An unsafe crane complaint was assigned to the site by the Department of Buildings on Wednesday and is being investigated, said department spokesperson Andrew Rudansky.

The construction site is for a building described as a “luxury rental tower” with up to “453 mixed-income residential homes,” according to the website of project owner Gotham.

Onlookers and displaced residents watched Wednesday morning as firefighters and construction workers tried to secure the area.

Maria Carmen Ibarra and her niece Pilar Ibarra are visiting from Spain, and were told to evacuate a hotel near the collapse.

“They sounded an alarm that said ‘attention please, attention please. Get away from the windows.’ And they told us to leave the building,” Maria Carmen said in Spanish. While the duo have their passports, they were waiting it to go back inside and get their suitcases, which they need for their flight back to Spain Wednesday night.

Ashley Ross was told to evacuate the shelter on the corner of Dyer Ave and W 41st where she, her husband and two kids are staying at around 7:30 Wednesday morning.

"Really all all I heard was a big bang because we were still all asleep," she said. "We heard that and they came to the door and we came outside and they moved us down here."

Ramsey Khalifeh contributed reporting. This story has been updated with new information provided by city officials, and the headline has been changed to reflect the new information on the total number of people injured.