Flatbush Ave in Flatbush, New York, stood still and in shock after a three-storey apartment building collapsed on Wednesday afternoon near a construction site.
“The last time I saw something like this was when I went to work at 9/11,” Prudence Foster said.
Foster, a retired utility worker with ConEdison, has lived in the Brooklyn neighborhood most of her life and now lives on 19th Street – about a 20-minute drive from the wreckage. She heard helicopters on her way home on Wednesday and received a call from a friend about the building’s destruction.
“I was glad the building didn’t blow up because of the gas lines,” Foster said. “Who is going to be held accountable for the loss of lives?”
Foster’s biggest concern is the residents left in the three buildings still standing and previously connected to the one that collapsed. Officials have also ordered the evacuation of all residents in those buildings during their investigation. Foster said the city should consider taking those buildings down before they also collapse.
Staff at Cyrus Medical Group, which sits right across the street from the rubble, were checking surveillance cameras Thursday morning to see if any of their patients were involved in the building’s destruction.
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Wis Santilous, who works at a nearby homeless shelter, said he hoped nobody at his shelter was involved.
Why’s this read like the prime suspects are medical patients and homeless people?
street view of the building that collapsed into the empty lot
Alas, it is far too early to determine the cause and blame. Probably won’t have a definitive suspects for a few weeks or months yet.
or decades/centuries
