NEW YORK (AP) — A massive brick chimney running 20 stories up the side of a New York City apartment building collapsed after an explosion Wednesday, sending tons of debris plummeting to the ground.
Mayor Eric Adams said no injuries or deaths were reported in the collapse of the chimney, which rose up from the public housing building’s boiler room. Officials notified of an explosion in the Bronx just after 8 a.m. were trying to determine if there was a gas leak.
The falling bricks buried a sidewalk, landed on the building’s playground and sent a cloud of dust billowing over the block. Video shows a portion of the chimney that rose above the roof line crumbling last and then tumbling to the ground.
“We avoided a major disaster here,” said Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson at a news conference.
The mound of rubble was littered with air conditioners, which appeared to have been ripped out of apartment windows by the falling bricks. News helicopter footage showed a rescue dog bounding over the huge pile of bricks at the bottom of the building, sniffing for anyone who might be buried under the rubble.
A witness, Diamond Freeman, told WPIX-TV that there was a loud boom.
“And all the side of the building just fell. It was crazy. All you see is smoke,” Freeman said.
City officials in charge of public buildings said they need to investigate to see what went wrong.
The city’s Emergency Management Commissioner, Zach Iscol, said building inspectors are checking the building’s foundations and the apartments in the impacted area to make sure they are sound. The mayor said the building will be repaired.
Kaz Daughtry, the deputy mayor for public safety, said on X that some apartments were being evacuated as a precaution and services for them were being made available at a nearby community center.
Officers established a perimeter around the area as firefighters, city building officials and the Con Edison utility provider were on the scene. Police said they received 911 calls about a building collapse just after 8 a.m. at the Mitchel Houses building.
Around half a million New Yorkers live in aging buildings run by the largest housing authority in the nation, known as NYCHA. Tenants in the system's have complained for decades about dangerous or unsanitary conditions including rodents, mold, and heat and hot water outages.
Many of the properties date back to the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. In 2019, a federal monitor was appointed to address chronic problems like lead paint, mold and lack of heat. When he wrapped his five-year term in 2024, the monitor, Bart Schwartz, noted that the overarching issue for residents remained the “poor physical state of NYCHA’s buildings.”
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Associated Press writers Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, Michael Hill in Albany, New York, and Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey, contributed.
