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Child dies a day after bricks fall on her head on Upper West Side

A 2-year-old girl died yesterday, a day after brick debris fell on her head from the facade of an Upper West Side building.

Greta Greene was in the arms of her grandmother, who was sitting on a bench in front of the Esplanade Manhattan nursing home on West End Avenue, near 74th Street, at about 11 a.m. on Sunday when the bricks came tumbling down on the childas head.

The debris reportedly fell eight stories from a window ledge.

Greta was taken to New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Hospital, where she died just before 7:30 a.m. yesterday, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the incident said. 

Her grandmother suffered minor injuries to her wrist and ankle. 

It was not immediately clear what made the bricks fall. 

There were no recent complaints about the facade of the building before the accident, a Department of Buildings spokesman wrote in an email.

The last facade report was completed in 2011, the spokesman said, and the building was fined at that time for initially not submitting the required report.

After the accident, the DOB issued an Aggravated Level II ECB violation to the owner Sunday for aa failure to maintain the facade in a safe and code compliant manner,a the spokesman said. 

aThe entire Scharf family is heartbroken by this tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Greta Greeneas family,a a spokesman for the family that owns the facility said in a statement.

aWe are fully cooperating with city emergency response agencies and the Department of Buildings to determine the cause of this horrible incident and to safeguard the public.a

The owners were required to construct a sidewalk shed until the building is secured, the DOB spokesman said.

(With Anthony m. Destefano)