Family’s miracle escape as terrifying video shows NYC building collapse from inside apartment as neighbors acknowledge warning signs in weeks before tragedy

Frightening video has surfaced of the moment a family survived a building collapse, as neighbors claimed their homes had been shaking for weeks because of nearby construction work.

Eight people died when a three-story building in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn collapsed around 4pm Wednesday as construction workers were digging at an adjacent lot.

New footage has emerged of an apartment affected by the collapse, showing Anderson Velez’s family, including a 9-year-old boy and a 2-year-old boy, inside as the walls began collapsing. 

Velez was not at home in the clip, which was shared by CBS News, but his wife and kids were.

The father said his wife and 9-year-old were in the hospital, while his younger son was not injured.

A 44-year-old neighbor who has been living in an adjacent building for seven years said his home had been shaking on a daily basis ever since construction began nearby a month ago.

‘Since those people started building next door it’s everyday, every minute you hear it and feel it,’ the man, who was not named, told the US Sun outside the collapse.

Dervie Mapp, a 67-year-old retiree who lives along the construction site, said she and others had complained for months about the project. She watched the building collapse.

‘People were running up out of the pit, screaming and hollering,’ Mapp told the Associated Press. ‘I couldn’t believe it.’

Mapp said she ‘froze’ as she witnessed ‘the whole thing come down.’

She said her landlord had previously brought engineers into the building, but residents never received an inspection report.

Sumathy Kumar, the executive director of New York State Tenant Bloc and Housing Justice for All, said the landlord, Olufemi Falade, had a ‘track record of tenant neglect,’ according to CNN.

Councilmember Farah Louis, who represents that area, said Falade was a problematic landlord who did not keep his properties to code. 

Eight people died in the building collapse, including two Colombian children who were identified as Nicole Daniela Salvada Rodriguez, 9, and Kevin Santiago Reyes Gonzalez, 10, by the New York City Police Department.

The Ecuadorian consulate in New York, as well as police, said José Luis Caguana Cosquillo, 26, and Gabriel Siguencia, 22 had died.

Police also confirmed Juan Daniel Salvada Guzman, 31, Ndiaye Mamadou, 31, Barry Mamadou, 23 and Edgar Sapon, 26, were among the dead.

On Thursday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered inspections at approximately 100 other building sites across the city involving companies related to the construction site.

‘If there is anyone, or any entity, operating in this city that bears responsibility for what happened, we will hold them fully accountable,’ Mamdani said during a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

Mamdani said 18 other people, 14 civilians and four firefighters, had suffered injuries as a result of the tragedy.

Most of those people were still being treated in hospitals and in stable condition, though one person was in critical condition.

The building that collapsed had been erected in the 1930s, and was a mixed-use structure with apartments atop a business on the ground floor, perched on the edge of a lot where another one-story building had been torn down for a construction project.

The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) commissioner, Ahmed Tigani, said Wednesday that construction workers were excavating the empty lot next door when the building collapsed.

City officials said a stop work order had been issued in March after inspectors concluded the building next door was being demolished without adequate overhead protection such as netting to shield neighboring buildings. 

In April, inspectors found that the demolition work had resumed in violation of the stop work order.

Work was allowed to continue in May after the problems were corrected, according to the department.

First responders had to work through a huge pile of rubble to pull out people affected by the collapse.

Video showed how firefighters pulled a pregnant woman from the rubble Wednesday and rushed her to a waiting ambulance.

There were four apartments on the upper two floors and a commercial unit on the ground floor of the collapsed building, according to building records cited by the AP.

Resident James Williams said he was inside his third floor apartment when the building came down.

‘All I know is I was with the wife and then we just heard some rumbling, the next thing you know, just open the door and happen to see the outside,’ Williams told 1010 WINS.

He said he later saw a bright light, followed by first responders coming to his rescue.

‘Everybody’s traumatized, we all are,’ Williams said. ‘Because one minute, we’re all just living our normal lives and the next minute, before our eyes, this just happened so suddenly.’ 

The property had 98 open housing violations that included bedbugs and leaks, according to CBS News. 

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said his office was ‘looking into disturbing things we heard about the property and the property owner who may have been negligent.’

Williams said the landlord ‘may have been on our worst landlord watchlist, one of the years recently.’

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said his office was working with the DOB and law enforcement to determine if any criminal conduct may have contributed to the collapse.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said that ‘New Yorkers deserve to know how and why this happened,’ calling the collapse ‘horrific.’