At least one person is dead and five others injured after a parking garage collapsed Tuesday afternoon in New York City, officials said.
The garage on Ann Street between Nassau Street and William Street in the Financial District in Lower Manhattan partially collapsed at around 4:15 p.m.
Videos shared by Twitter user @dadarocks show the New York City Fire Department on the scene. An entrance to the garage is blocked by fallen vehicles. A robot dog unit can be seen entering the structure.
In a press conference shortly after 5:30 p.m., FDNY Chief of Operations John J. Hodgens confirmed one person was pronounced dead on the scene.
“We believe that we have everybody accounted for,” Hodgens said, explaining that due to structural instability, firefighters were using drone and robot dog units with streaming video to search the garage for survivors.
“Weve used the [robot] dog before, this is the first time weve been able to fly inside a collapse,” Hodgens said.
One worker trapped on the upper floors was “conscious and alert,” allowing firefighters to rescue him from overhead across another rooftop, Hodgens said.
Pace University buildings next to the garage at 33 Beekman and 161 William were evacuated, the university said. All classes on the universitys NYC campus were canceled.
