Emergency personnel and Buildings Department inspectors are examining the site of a scaffolding collapse in Midtown that killed one individual and injured three others.
According to published reports, the collapse occurred at about 4:30 p.m. along East 36th Street near 3rd Avenue. The four victims, according to WABC-TV, were also working inside the building at the time the scaffolding gave way.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer said the workers were performing façade renovations at the time. No one else on the street or inside the building were injured.
The collapsed scaffolding also compromised the structural integrity of a neighboring building on 34th Street, forcing an evacuation of six tenants, Brewer reported.
“It is believed that the building on the other side of the first building collapse on 34th Street is in danger & so 6 tenants are being vacated,” she tweeted. “My office is monitoring the relocations with HPD (Department of Housing Preservation and Development).”
Following the incident, City Councilman Ben Kallos of the Upper East Side called for the passage of legislation he introduced to require greater inspections of scaffolds.
“We cannot keep watching bricks fall, scaffolding collapse, injuring and killing New Yorkers. These bricks should never have been allowed to deteriorate to the point that they fell and the scaffolding should never have collapsed,” Kallos said in a statement. “We must pass a law forcing the inspection of every inch of scaffolding as soon as possible. We must pass a law to require building owners to maintain their buildings or step in as a city and do the work ourselves.”
It was the second major building mishap in Manhattan on Thursday; a partial building collapse occurred on East 34th Street in Murray Hill just before noon, but no one was injured.
