Flatbush collapse: 8 dead, including 2 children, Mayor Mamdani says, as rescuers keep digging

Eight people are now confirmed dead after a three-story building collapsed in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon, Fox News reports, citing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

"I am heartbroken that eight New Yorkers have now lost their lives and at least 17 have been injured, including three firefighters," Mamdani said Thursday morning. Four of the injured were taken to hospitals in critical condition.

The FDNY first reported two deaths, but the toll has kept climbing as crews recover more bodies. More than 250 fire and EMS personnel remain on scene, using drones to survey the wreckage and vacuum trucks to remove debris while they search for anyone still buried.

The building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue, with a store at street level and apartments above, fell into an open construction site next door at 2625 Bedford Avenue. In March, the city's Department of Buildings issued a stop-work order there after inspectors found the developers had demolished the old building without adequately shielding neighboring properties, including 1321 Flatbush. A month later, inspectors found demolition had continued in violation of that order, and the contractor was fined $10,000. The order was lifted in May.

The Buildings Department has halted all work at the Bedford Avenue site again and opened an investigation. No cause has been determined.

Update, Nov. 12, 11:40 a.m. ET: Firefighters pulled a pregnant woman alive from the wreckage, one of several rescues as roughly 250 firefighters and police officers worked through the debris with search dogs, power saws and bucket brigades, Fox News reports. Fire Department Chief John Esposito warned a full search of the site will take several days, and officials still do not know exactly how many residents or construction workers are unaccounted for. One of the dead was a 26-year-old construction worker, identified by his brother as Luis Caguana. Heavy rain in the forecast threatens to complicate the search.

Update, Nov. 12, 12:55 p.m. ET: Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a midday briefing that six adults and two children died when the three-story building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue collapsed. Six died at the scene and two at nearby hospitals. Two of the dead were construction workers at the 2625 Bedford Avenue site next door. Eighteen other people were injured, 14 civilians and four firefighters; most of those still hospitalized are stable and one is in critical condition. Mamdani said the victims included young families and immigrants from Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Trinidad.

Update, Nov. 12, 2:15 p.m. ET: The three-story building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue had no structural complaints on file with the city's Department of Buildings until demolition began on the lot next door at 2625 Bedford Avenue in September 2025, the New York Post reports, citing city records. An inspection report filed with the DOB in March flagged cracks in the building's north facade, and the city ordered the demolition next door stopped that same month. Inspectors found the work had continued anyway, and general contractor N Tech Design of America was hit with a Class 1 violation, the city's most serious, and paid a $10,000 fine. The DOB lifted the stop-work order in May. The license of the third-party inspector assigned to oversee the excavation expired in July. As of Thursday afternoon, the FDNY put the toll at eight dead and 19 hurt, three of them firefighters. Video shows FDNY firefighters carrying a pregnant woman out of the rubble alive.

Update, Nov. 12, 3:35 p.m. ET: Ring camera video obtained by News 12 shows part of the building falling away and plunging to the ground in a cloud of dust, leaving only a staircase and part of a hallway, the New York Post reports.