Chunk of the New York building collapses in a possible explosion

A section of a 20 -storey residential building has partially collapsed in New York on Wednesday morning, and the authorities say that there are no injuries.

Firefighters and emergency speakers searched in the afternoon for anyone who was able to be trapped under the Monticles from the rubble outside the building, which is part of the development of social housing in the Bronx.

“All the right building – you heard a strong boom, and the thing simply exploded, and it fell like that,” said a witness who spoke with CBS News, the American partner of the BBC.

“Someone in the building next to me, they said that their window had even fallen, and it was on the 16th floor,” said another witness to CBS.

The collapse seems to be coming from an explosion in the ventilation well of a boiler room, said the city fire commissioner Robert Tucker, during a press conference.

No apartment was damaged, but as a precautionary measure, some residents were evacuated. Others have been authorized to return, but the gas to the building was closed as the authorities were investigating.

This investigation will determine if a gas leak has caused the explosion, said Mayor Eric Adams. The public service provider Coned has not returned a request for BBC comments.

The New York City Housing Authority, which manages the complex, said in a statement that it was investigating the incident and still determined the extent of damage. The building has some violations open against it.

The New York Building Department has published a partial stop work, which is still active, on the building in June, according to public archives. The order was linked to a violation of plumbing which may have been defective, without work or poorly maintained.

Two other property violations are still active, according to public archives. One from February 2024 concerns the failure of the building to submit a report on security and the inspection of the facades.

The other active violation deals with a Nycha inspection report which revealed that the facade of the building was dangerous.

DOB commissioner James Oddo said there were three violations open to property that deal with non-security problems on boilers. We do not know how the violations to which he refers are linked, if not at all, to active violations described in public archives.

The partial collapse comes a week after a fire in the same building left a comatose teenager and in critical condition, although her father said to Local Outlet News 12 Long Island that she is recovering now.

“We were lucky that this urgency did not lead to a loss of linked lives, that it did not turn into a tragedy,” said Amanda Septimo, member of the Assembly who represents the District of the Building, at the press conference.

“But we cannot count on luck to ensure the security of our community.”