Four people are critically injured as emergency crews continue searching the rubble for possible survivors.
At least two people were killed and 10 others injured, four critically, when a three-story building collapsed Wednesday afternoon in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood. Emergency crews worked through the night searching for survivors, with authorities warning that the operation could take several days as the number of people still missing remains unknown.
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The building, located on Flatbush Avenue, collapsed at around 4 p.m. local time. It housed commercial businesses on the ground floor and apartments on the upper levels.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed that all 10 injured people had been taken to nearby hospitals. FDNY Chief John Esposito said search operations would continue for several days as authorities worked to determine how many people remained unaccounted for.
Dozens of firefighters and emergency personnel took part in the overnight operation, removing bricks and wooden beams by hand and with power saws. Drones and specially trained search dogs were also deployed to help locate anyone trapped beneath the debris.
At 4:01 p.m. Wednesday, the FDNY responded to 1321 Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn for a collapse of a three-story, multiple-dwelling building into an adjacent construction site.
Units arrived within one minute and immediately started search-and-rescue operations. Two people have… pic.twitter.com/zSZBzsRu0C
— FDNY (@FDNY) November 12, 2026
At around 6:30 p.m., rescuers pulled one person alive from the wreckage. The survivor, covered in dust but conscious, was immediately taken to hospital by ambulance.
Among those caught in the collapse was resident Anderson Vélez, whose wife and two children, aged 7 and 2, were inside the building. Vélez told the New York Post that he was at work when his wife called to say they had been buried under the rubble.
“She called me as the building came down, with debris on top of her. She was screaming for someone to help get my son out, and then the call was cut off,” he said. Hours later, Vélez learned that his wife and both children had been rescued alive.
Preliminary reports indicate that the building stood next to a construction site where a single-story structure had previously been demolished to make way for a new development. Excavation work was underway on the adjacent property, which was subsequently covered by debris from the collapsed building.
The collapse also brought down the shared wall with a neighboring building. Although the adjacent structure remained standing, several of its interior rooms and closets were left exposed to the outside.
Municipal records identify the owner, architect and general contractor associated with the neighboring construction project. None had responded to requests for comment about the incident.
Mamdani called on the public to keep the residents and community members affected by the tragedy in their thoughts and prayers in a message posted on social media.
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