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One Dead, One Injured In NYC Building Collapse [Video]

By Selina Leavitt
Published on: 12:34 PST, Oct 31, 2015

A NYC building collapse occurred Friday causing the death of one man and injuring another.

Nineteen workers were inside the building at 25 W. 38th St., in midtown New York City, when the ceiling began to cave in. The eight-story building sounded like scaffolding crashing together, one witness said, as the collapse affected the two top floors.

“It sounded like a lot of scaffolding crashing together,” Shane Nickens, 27, another NYC construction worker that was employed across the street told the NY Post. “It was quick like a second.”

The NYC building collapse was reported on Friday at approximately 10:30 a.m.

Seventeen of the workers assigned to the building made it out in time.

“All I heard were people screaming and yelling. The two top floors collapsed and people are still trapped,” an unnamed source told the NY Post. “The ceiling caved in on the two top floors. The guy in charge was screaming for everyone to get out.”

The unnamed source was reportedly another New York City worker stationed at the building next door. That building, and the one on the other side, was unaffected by the collapse. Two of the workers were trapped inside the unstable building. Pedro Bacilio, 26, a resident of Brooklyn, was found dead at the bottom of the debris. The other trapped worker remained conscious, but trapped, due to the collapse. The name of the trapped worker was not released to the media.

When the building collapse occurred, the debris slid down at various angles to form a V-shape. At the point of that V-shape, the still-conscious worker was trapped. NYC FDNY explained that the area around the immediate collapse was the most difficult possible extraction site. It was because of that V-shape collapse that the building remained so unstable during the rescue and recovery mission.

“The building is, of course, a very dangerous place to work,” Fire Commissioner of the NYC Fire Department, Daniel Nigro, told NBC NY.

The worker’s hip was pinned by the debris for several hours as FDNY members fought to free him without endangering themselves or others. They had to create a canopy above the man to protect him from bricks that continued to fall from the top of the building.

“I’m amazed he made it out, given the void he was in and the amount of debris above him. He’s very lucky,” said FDNY Captain Dominic Bertucci.

“We were able to bring doctors in very close and give him an IV to control the pain,” FDNY Lt. Jonathan Negron said. “We brought world-class medicine right to his side in that hole.”

Upon extraction, the unnamed worker was taken to Bellevue Hospital. He is in stable, but serious, condition and both of his legs may have been broken. There is no current update on his condition.

Pedro Bacilio’s body was able to be recovered from the scene as well. He was found with his head pinned against a dumpster by a wooden joist. FDNY officials believe his death was immediate.

Although the reason for the building collapse is still under investigation, it is known that the building was cited for excessive debris on August 25. There is suspicion that workers were overloading a top floor with piled bricks and going over the maximum weight limit. An engineer did request a stop-work order on the building Thursday, but the request had not yet been processed.

When media from several publications called Fortuna Realty Group, the owner of the building, the group declined to comment and referred reporters to the demolition company that employed the workers, Northeast Service Interiors. The owners of the demolition company were on-site of the NYC building collapse and unavailable for immediate contact.

[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images ]

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