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Brooklyn building collapse causes minor injuries, leaves residents homeless
Photo credit: Urbanite
(Getty)
A Fort Greene building with a history of shaking and a cracked wall collapsed yesterday, but nobody was inside at the time.
Four people on the sidewalk sustained minor injuries in the collapse, which lead to the evacuation of much of the block.
The tenement-style building at 493 Myrtle Ave. went down about 2 p.m., according to the fire department.
The Vesper Bar and Lounge, on the building's first floor, was also destroyed, as were the homes of seven residents. The building began shaking before it collapsed, and residents fled before it fell, witnesses told the Daily News. Just before the collapse, someone called the fire department about falling bricks, officials said.The fire department evacuated the entire block and searched the rubble for any other injured people as a precaution. Residents of six surrounding buildings were not allowed back in yesterday evening as the buildings department investigated, a spokeswoman said. The cause of the collapse is still under investigation and no violations have been issued yet.
On May 1, the buildings department cited the structure with four violations, including one for a large crack that stretched the entire height of the building. The owner was due at a hearing today on that citation, according to city buildings department records.
A call to the owner, William Sang, 43, was not returned. He told the New York Post that the crack was about 10 years old.
Inspectors told him to repair the gouge, but Sang also told the Post that workers at an adjacent building were doing repairs right before the collapse.
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