Hunt for clues in deadly Brooklyn building collapse will take time
[November 13, 2026]
By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE, JENNIFER PELTZ and KATHY McCORMACK
NEW YORK (AP) — Investigators began what could be a long search for the
cause of a Brooklyn apartment building collapse that killed eight people
as the fire department ended rescue operations Thursday after the last
victim was freed from the wreckage.
The three-story building gave way while construction workers were
digging Wednesday afternoon at an adjacent lot, causing New York City's
mayor to order inspections at about 100 building sites involving
companies related to the project.
“If there is anyone, or any entity, operating in this city that bears
responsibility for what happened, we will hold them fully accountable,”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during a news conference.
Investigators have not determined what caused the collapse. Two
children, ages 9 and 10, were killed along with adults ranging in age
from 22 to 31, according to the New York City Police Department. There
were also 18 injured, including four firefighters, Mamdani said. The
children were Colombian, as was one of the adults who was killed,
according to the country’s consulate in New York.
One witness said he watched bricks fall minutes before the disaster
while a woman in a neighboring building said she and fellow residents
blamed vibrations from the construction for cracks that appeared in
their apartment walls.
Emergency workers used power saws and pickaxes to get through the
debris, pulling four victims out of the rubble in the early hours of
Thursday. Hours later, excavators removed larger chunks of the wreckage
so searchers could get deeper into the construction pit, said New York
Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore.
Witnesses describe the aftermath and destruction
James Williams, who works at a deli across the street, said he heard
loud banging at the site all day Wednesday and looked outside to see
bricks falling. “Two minutes later, the building collapsed,” he said.
As the building crumbled and exposed the neighboring building, Williams
spotted a woman on a staircase. “There wasn’t anything I could do,” he
said, his voice cracking.
Customers and stylists at a nearby hair salon jumped up and ran onto the
sidewalk as the building fell.
“We heard the boom and we all rushed outside and saw smoke and dust
everywhere,” said hairstylist Brigitte Anama.
She saw emergency workers pulling people from the rubble, including what
appeared to be a child. “People were saying, ‘Pray for the baby, pray
for the baby,’” Anama said.
Dervie Mapp, who lives along the construction site, said she and others
complained for months about the project. Her landlord brought engineers
into the building, but residents never received an inspection report,
she said.
Determining cause of Brooklyn collapse will take time, expert says
Construction safety expert Glenn Corbett of John Jay College in New York
said it’s way too early to know what caused the accident.
“It could be a design flaw, it could be a construction flaw, or it could
be some kind of work that was going on,” he said.
It appeared that the shoring of the excavation work failed, but finding
out why will take more investigating, he said.
The one-story building previously on the site was demolished earlier
this year. Records show a contractor, Mordechai “Marty” Waisbrod,
notified the city that excavation would begin in September and include
rock blasting.
Permit applications indicated plans to dig below 15 feet (4.5 meters).
Phone and email messages were left at one of Waisbrod’s Brooklyn-based
businesses.
Engineering drawings submitted with the applications show various plans
to brace walls at the edge of the site. Messages were left Thursday for
the engineer, Jieming Wang, and for an inspector who’s listed as being
involved with the project.
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A view of the site where a building collapsed the previous day in
the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP
Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Rescuers faced a massive pile of rubble
This was the second high-profile structural problem with a building
in New York in the past five months. In July, several buildings in
Manhattan were evacuated after support columns buckled inside a
skyscraper that once was the headquarters of Pfizer.
First responders in Brooklyn worked to clear a massive heap that
included mattresses, a broken sink and a refrigerator tossed on its
side. Scattered in the debris were vinyl records, clothes and shoes.
Firefighters pulled a pregnant woman from the rubble Wednesday,
hoisted her up on a stretcher and rushed her to a waiting ambulance.
Others were rescued as the night wore on.
Building records show there were four apartments on the upper two
floors and a commercial unit on the ground floor of the collapsed
building.
Victims were from multiple countries
The police department identified those killed as Nicole Daniela
Salvada Rodriguez, 9; Juan Daniel Salvada Guzman, 31; Kevin Santiago
Reyes Gonzalez, 10; Ndiaye Mamadou, 31; Barry Mamadou, 23; Gabriel
Siguencia, 22; Edgar Sapon, 26; and Jose Luis Caguana Cosquillo, 26.
Some of the victims were from Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and
Trinidad, New York’s mayor said. Two of the dead were construction
workers, he said.
Some workers who survived joined firefighters in digging out
survivors, he said.
Caguana Cosquillo and Siguencia were from Ecuador, according to the
Consulate of Ecuador in New York.
Carlos Caguana said his brother, José, was working at the
construction site and had a pregnant wife and a young child.
“He was the sole provider for the family,” Caguana told WNBC-TV.
The surrounding blocks along Flatbush Avenue, a busy thoroughfare in
Brooklyn, are tightly packed with older brick buildings and a few
newly built apartment complexes. A mix of Caribbean and Mexican
restaurants reflects the diversity of the neighborhood.
Inspectors reported violations earlier this year
New York City’s buildings commissioner, Ahmed Tigani, said Wednesday
that construction workers were excavating the empty lot next door
when the building buckled. The city’s Department of Buildings is
investigating.
City officials said a stop work order was issued in March after
inspectors concluded the building next door was being demolished
without adequate overhead protection such as netting to shield
neighboring buildings, the department said in an emailed statement.
In April, inspectors found that the demolition work had resumed in
violation of the stop work order, the department said. Work was
allowed to continue after the problems were corrected, it said.
___
McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press
writers Yuki Iwamura in New York; Dave Collins in Hartford,
Connecticut; Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Hannah Fingerhut in
Des Moines, Iowa; R.J. Rico in Atlanta; Laura Turbay in Little Rock,
Arkansas; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
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