Building collapse lawyers note that the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) had approved a residential bungalow in the Gerritsen Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn for renovation and expansion in early March. Now that the second-story expansion of the bungalow, which was nearing completion, has slid off the first story of the building and fatally collapsed upon a young construction worker, the NYC DOB has approved the building for demolition. The DOB has issued an emergency declaration to speed the demolition of the unstable residential structure. It also has issued an order calling for the temporary evacuation of a neighboring building that was threatened by the collapse.
Santos Garcia, 25, was killed on Tuesday when the second story of the residential bungalow slid from the original first story and collapsed on him while he was on a job for J.D. Construction and Contracting. 3 other workers received injuries in the fatal building collapse. Witnesses say that the building almost slid into a neighboring home.
A DOB spokeswoman admitted that a preliminary investigation following the collapse has indicated that poor “existing” conditions on the original first floor of the building were partially to blame for the accident. The investigation also indicates that a failure to properly anchor the second floor to the first floor contributed to the collapse. The spokeswoman also said that investigators were looking into the question of whether the first floor was even properly designed to support a second story.
Our building collapse lawyers ask whether it might not have been more appropriate to look into that issue before issuing the DOB permit approving the expansion of the now-collapsed and condemned building.
We point out that this is the second fatal building collapse in New York City’s 5-borough region in the last few weeks. Read our building collapse lawyers’ discussion of the fatal Manhattan warehouse collapse that occurred just last month.