New York's social housing tower is partially collapsed after the explosion -

A huge brick fireplace operating at 20 floors on the side of an apartment building in New York collapsed after an explosion on Wednesday, sending tons of debris on the ground.

The drooping bricks buried a sidewalk, landed on the playground of the public housing building and sent a cloud of dust that swings on the block in the Bronx. Surprisingly, no one was injured.

“We have avoided a major disaster here,” said the president of the Bronx borough Vanessa Gibson during a press conference.

Mayor Eric Adams confirmed that no injury or death had been reported during the collapse of the fireplace, which has come about the building boiler. The officials were informed of the explosion just after 8 am and tried to determine if there was a gas leak.

A man is seen talking about a podium with a group of civil servants and a fire truck behind him. — New York mayor Eric Adams speaks for a press conference after the incinerator of a building collapsed in the Bronx on Wednesday. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / The Associated Press)

The debris mound was strewn with air conditioners, who seemed to have been torn from the windows of the apartments by the falling bricks. The images of the News helicopter showed a rescue dog delimiting on the huge pile of bricks at the bottom of the building, sniffing for anyone could be buried under the rubble.

A witness, Diamond Freeman, told WPIX-TV that there was a strong boom.

“And the whole side of the building fell. It was crazy. All you see was smoke,” said Freeman.

A building is seen from above with part of its detached coating. — This image provided by the New York fire service shows part of an apartment building at the top of the crisis that collapsed on Wednesday, leaving a corner of the building a lot of rubble. (FDNY via the Associated Press)

The city officials in charge of public buildings said they had to investigate to see what was wrong.

The Commissioner of the Building Department, James Oddo, said that he thought that work was done on the boiler.

The city emergency management commissioner Zach Iscol said that building inspectors check the building foundations and apartments in the affected area to ensure that they are healthy. The mayor said the building will be repaired.

Officials said that certain apartments were evacuated as a precaution and that resident services were made available in a neighboring community center.

The firefighters are seen through a bunch of bricks at the level of the ground from a height. — The firefighters work near the site of the collapse of the Bronx building. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / The Associated Press)

About half a million New Yorker live in aging buildings led by the city’s housing authority, known as Nycha, which is the largest in the country.

Many properties go back to the 1940s, 50s and 60s. In 2019, a federal instructor was appointed to solve chronic problems such as lead paint, mold and lack of heat.

When he finished his five -year term in 2024, the instructor, Bart Schwartz, noted that the overall problem of residents remained the “poor physical condition of Nycha buildings”.

https://i.cbc.ca/1.7648293.1759340668!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_1180/building-collapse-new-york-city.jpg?im=Resize%3D620