Collapse Call in Queens yesterday?

[IzzyEng4 427]

Anyone hear of a collapse or buildng explosion in Queens yesterday around 1:30p?

[JetPhoto 626]

Anyone hear of a collapse or buildng explosion in Queens yesterday around 1:30p?

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Yea, I think there were some serious inj. also. I think it was caused be nearby construction.

[pfd950 1]

http://www.wnbc.com/news/9592759/detail.html

here ya go.

[Guest]

credit: NYTimes

July 29, 2006

Worker Dies as Garage Collapses in Queens

By ANTHONY RAMIREZ and ANN FARMER

The New York Times

A construction worker was killed yesterday and two others briefly trapped when a garage collapsed as they were laying a foundation for an apartment building in Queens, engulfing a work crew in a cloud of collapsing bricks and concrete, the authorities said.

The dead worker was pulled from the rubble and placed in a white shroud on a stretcher. The man’s name was not immediately available because he had no identification with him, a law enforcement official said.

The wounded worker, Ashbourne McPherson, 46, of Cambria Heights, Queens, was taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital in stable condition with injuries to his right side. The name and whereabouts of the third worker, who was also pulled from the debris, were not immediately known.

Nat Rivera, 54, a construction worker on his day off, was relaxing on his porch across the street from the construction site at 90-27 138th Place in Jamaica, Queens. About 1 p.m., he heard a “vroom†sound, he said, like a jet taking off.

He said he ran across the street and saw men scrambling away from a cloud of dust and bricks. A one-story garage had collapsed on one side onto the crew working in the adjacent lot, where they were working several yards below street level, Mr. Rivera said.

Mr. Rivera said he helped one worker who had run away from the collapsing wall and stumbled into a ditch, which formed a protective air pocket around him. Aanother worker, Mr. McPherson, was pinned by rubble around his head and shoulder, Mr. Rivera said.

He was able to help the worker in the ditch, but could not help Mr. McPherson or the dead man, who were extracted by rescue workers using air bags to move and lift large concrete slabs.

“I was crying for about an hour afterward,†Mr. Rivera said, who began to cry as he recounted the accident a few hours later. “I knew the guy died.â€

James Connelly, fire chief of the 50th Battalion, said about the construction crew, “It looks like they were digging under the foundation and the wall collapsed†from the adjacent garage. “It doesn’t seem like there was any shoring up.â€

Fred Reich, an official with the City Office of Emergency Management, said the crew was attempting to create footing for a foundation for an apartment building. The Buildings Department had issued permits for the planned three-story, three-family building.

A standard construction technique is called underpinning, in which supports are inserted into any adjacent buildings so they do not topple into the construction hole as the new foundation is laid.

The Buildings Department said a building inspector and a forensic engineer were conducting an investigation by midafternoon, but declined further comment.

A person who answered the telephone at Vojtek Construction of Maspeth, N.Y., the construction contractor of record, declined requests for an interview. Pierre Cadet, the site owner of record, did not return telephone messages left on his office voicemail.

[IzzyEng4 427]

Thanks, cought the last part on the news last night.

[Guest Rich DD]

http://www.wnbc.com/news/9592759/detail.html

here ya go.

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Did FDNY do any trenching or shoring on this job?

[JBE 328]

According to one of the news stories, they did enough to get the victims out.