Adams: One person dead, five injured in lower Manhattan parking garage collapse

One person was killed and five others were injured after a parking garage collapsed Tuesday afternoon in lower Manhattan, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said.

FDNY firefighters were called at 4:08 p.m. for a major technical rescue after the parking garage collapsed at 57 Ann St. at William Street, FDNY officials said.

There were six workers in the building at the time of the collapse, four of whom were taken by ambulance to hospitals with another refusing treatment.

One person was pronounced dead from their injuries. Fire officials believe the person killed was a worker in the building.

"This was an extremely dangerous operation for our firefighters." FDNY Chief of Operations John Esposito said. 

Firefighters were searching inside the building as it continued to collapse and had to evacuate, Esposito said.

The FDNY instead used a robotic dog and drones to search the building with video inside the collapsed structure.

"Although we continue to make sure we have everybody accounted for, at this time we have the workers in danger in the building all accounted for and out of the building," Esposito said. "That structure is very unstable and a couple floors of concrete floors slabs and crushed cars inside."

One worker was stranded on an upper floor, conscious and able to move, Esposito said. The worker was rescued by firefighters who carried him across the roof to another building, the chief said.

"I don't know that there were people that were trapped," Esposito said, "I think they were just injured."

NYPD officers evacuated a nearby Pace University building, which was deemed unstable, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said. 

"At this time we have no reason to believe this is anything but a structural collapse," Sewell said. 

In a tweet, the university said all Tuesday classes at the lower Manhattan campus had been canceled.

Resident halls at 33 Beekman and 161 William have been evacuated and accommodations are being made for our residential students," Pace tweeted.

Drones were used to search the four-story garage and adjoining buildings for any possible cause of the collapse.

The building was constructed in 1957 and had a violation in 2003. A building application was filed in 2010 and had several active permits, including electrical work, building department officials said.

There were no ongoing complaints on the structure, Adams said.

The garage collapsed in one of the oldest parts of Manhattan, blocks from the Financial District, City Hall, and the adjoining commons where George Washington first read the Declaration of Independence to his troops in 1776.

The FDNY robotics unit streamed video from inside the garage to survey without putting firefighters at risk, Esposito said. He said this was the first time the department has used drones inside a building collapse. 

The video showed crushed vehicles, which were being investigated to make sure they were empty. Esposito said he was not aware of any ongoing construction inside the garage.