Chunk of New York apartment building collapses in possible explosion

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

Firefighters and emergency responders searched into the afternoon for anyone who may have been trapped under the mounds of rubble outside the building, which is part of a public housing development in the Bronx.

“The whole building just – you heard a loud boom, and the thing just exploded, and it fell down just like that,” said one witness who spoke with CBS News, BBC’s US partner.

“Somebody in the building next to me, they said that their window even fell, and it’s on the 16th floor,” another witness told CBS.

The collapse seems to have originated from an explosion in the ventilation shaft of a boiler room, the city’s fire commissioner Robert Tucker said in a news conference.

No apartments were damaged, but as a precautionary measure, some residents have been evacuated. Others were allowed to return, but the gas to the building has been shut off as authorities investigate.

That investigation will determine whether a gas leak caused the explosion, Mayor Eric Adams said. Utility provider ConEd has not returned a request for comment from BBC.

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

NYC Department of Buildings issued a partial stop work order, which is still active, on the building in June, according to public records. The order was related to a violation on plumbing that may have been defective, not working, or poorly maintained.

Two other violations on the property are still active, public records show. One from February 2024 concerns the building’s failure to file a report on facade safety and inspection.

The other active violation deals with a NYCHA inspection report that found the building’s facade to be unsafe.

The DOB’s commissioner, James Oddo, said there are three open violations against the property that deal with non-safety issues on boilers. It’s not clear how the violations he’s referencing are related, if at all, to the active violations described in public records.

The partial collapse comes just a week after a fire in the same building left a teenage girl comatose and in critical condition, though her father told local outlet News 12 Long Island that she is now recovering.

“We were lucky that this emergency didn’t result in a loss of life, that it didn’t turn into a tragedy,” Amanda Septimo, an assembly member who represents the building’s district, said at the news conference.

“But we can’t be relying on luck to keep our community safe.”