A
40-foot-by-20-foot section of a building at 71
Reade St. collapsed around 6:30 a.m., covering
the surrounding area in dust and debris.
No injuries were
reported, and emergency workers had cleared most
of the rubble from the street and sidewalk by
early afternoon.
A five-story, unoccupied
building at 71 Reade Street collapsed Thursday morning,
April 30, burying the sidewalk, between Church Street
and Broadway, in a mound of rubble and smashing two cars
but causing no reported injuries.
Fire Department officials said the collapse occurred
sometime around 6:30 a.m., April 30. Dozens of
firefighters, police, Department of Buildings and Con
Edison personnel flooded into the neighborhood shortly
after a 40-foot-by-20-foot section of the building came
down.
“I woke up and the building was already down,” said
Scott Bornstein, a resident at 74 Reade St., directly
across from the site of the collapse. “Thank God it
wasn’t 45 minutes later, otherwise it would have been a
disaster.”
“I heard like a crash and I thought maybe an
earthquake,” said Samantha Dennis, who was evacuated
along with the rest of the residents at 85 chambers, a
couple of doors east of the site.
“But then my whole building was still asleep and
everyone was dead to the world so I thought it musn't be
anything," she said. "And then we heard fire engines and
helicopters and they banged on the door.”
Between 125 and 150 firefighters helped pick through the
tangled rubble of the collapsed portion of the building,
but as of noon Thursday no one was found.
“We have preliminary information from an eyewitness that
there was nobody at the site or in the area when the
structure collapsed,” FDNY Deputy Chief Ronald Spadafora
said as rescue workers continued to search the site.
The exact cause of the collapse remains under
investigation. Several streets were closed off near the
scene of the accident within several minutes of the Fire
Department's alert that the building was down, snarling
vehicular and pedestrian traffic in all directions.
Roanne Kolvenbach, who lives at 76 Reade St., said she
and her family had slept through the sound of the
building coming down, but were stirred by the sound of
news helicopters circling overhead.
"We came out into the
hall, and it was like, 'Holy crap!'" she said. "We
didn't have any damage, which I think is amazing."
Matt Dunning /
Tribeca Trib
Roanne Kolvenbach
stares out her living room window, across the
street from what remains of the five-story
building at 71 Reade Street.
The vacant, 109-year-old
structure was in the process of being renovated into a
boutique hotel, according to the Commissioner of the
city’s Department of Buildings Robert Limandri. Just two
days before the collapse, on April 28, Limandri said DOB
inspectors
told the project’s
contractor, FMC Construction, that the building needed
immediate internal and external reinforcement.
“We do know that this building was fragile,” Limandri
said, adding that the building’s owner, Aron Vaknin, had
recently submitted plans to partially demolish the very
section of the building that had collapsed. “Many old
buildings that have not been repaired and maintained for
quite a number of years have structural issues, and this
had been identified by the owner.”
The building has a
history of complaints made to the DOB dating back to
November 2007. Complaints about the building, which is
also addressed as 89 Chambers St., make frequent note of
the building’s crumbling façade and the contractor’s
failure to maintain the site. The most recent
complaints, dated just one and two days before the
accident, indicate that the building was “shaking or
vibrating.”
The collapse occurred
next door to the site of a planned six-story, 63,000
square-foot condominium building at 77 Reade St. The
DOB is investigating whether foundation work on that
site contributed to the collapse>>>
Firefighter Charles Maloney
receives the Firemark Award from Liberty Mutual Sales
Representative Matt Morse.
Firefighter Charles Maloney received
a Firemark Award for Heroism from Liberty Mutual on April 30 at the
quarters of Ladder 18, his Manhattan firehouse.
“This is humbling,” said Firefighter
Maloney. “I was very, very surprised when they told me I’d receive
this.”
Matt Morse, a Sales Representative
for Liberty Mutual, said, “We’re here today to say thank you to
Firefighter Maloney and all [members of Ladder 18] for the work you
do in the community.”
Firefighter Maloney, a 30-year
veteran of the FDNY, received the honor for a rescue on March 22,
2008, when he helped save two people trapped in an apartment fire
along the FDR Drive.
The officer on duty that day, Lt.
Todd Heaney, said he was impressed, but not surprised, by the
seasoned firefighter’s intuition and skill.
“He’s been doing this for 30 years,”
he said. “He knew exactly what to do, before I could even tell him.”>>>
A New York City firefighter has the
second probable case of swine flu identified in Orange County, state
and county officials said Thursday, a day after the first case was
announced.
The first instance involved a nursing
assistant at The Valley View Center for Nursing Care and
Rehabilitation in Goshen. County officials have said the worker
vacationed in Mexico, where the disease is believed to have
originated, and returned to work at the county-run nursing home for
several days last week before going home ill.
The firefighter's illness is also
linked to Mexico, but county health officials would not disclose
details about his case.
On Thursday, officials said that
three Valley View residents were being tested for swine flu after
exhibiting mild, flu-like symptoms. They have promised to treat all
360 residents with the anti-viral drug Tamiflu and offer the same
medication to all 550 employees of the facility>>>
For
nearly 30 years, Staten Island Firefighter
Martin Fullam saved the lives of uncounted
strangers.
Last month, a
stranger responded in kind -- donating a lung
that the retired FDNY lieutenant desperately
needed to survive a rare disease he may have
contracted while responding to the 9/11
terrorist attacks.
Fullam, 56, headed to his
Annadale home yesterday with
his wife and three daughters
after successful transplant
surgery and four weeks in a
Manhattan hospital. Dozens
of his FDNY brethren marked
the occasion with a
celebration at the New
York-Presbyterian
Hospital/Columbia Medical
Center in Washington
Heights, with bagpipers and
well-wishers lining the
sidewalks.
Fullam, who could barely
brush his teeth or put on
his clothes without losing
his breath because of his
deadly illness, was just
happy to be able to breathe
on his own for the first
time in 3 1/2 years>>>
The
same type of salt found on the gun used to kill Supervising Fire
Marshal Douglas Mercereau is among the ingredients in bleach
cleansers and dishwasher detergent police recovered from the
victim's Oakwood home one day after the shooting, a police
criminalist told jurors today.
Four containers of bleach and a jug
of Cascade dishwasher detergent lifted from the Tarring Street home
Mercereau shared with his wife, Janet Redmond-Mercereau, and their
two young daughters contained sodium chloride -- or salt, NYPD lab
analyst Michael Dushenchuk testified.
Yesterday, former NYPD forensics
scientist Kristen McDonald said white residue found on Mercereau's
stainless Smith & Wesson 9 mm service pistol tested out as "common
salt."
But Ms. McDonald noted that the
source of the sodium chloride residue nor rust found on the gun's
slide, behind the muzzle and in front of the trigger guard could be
determined.
Prosecutors Yolanda Rudich and Adam
Silberlight attempted to link the salty trail with Mrs. Redmond-Mercereau,
claiming the former Tottenville High School teacher murdered her
husband in his sleep then ran the gun through the dishwasher to wash
away fingerprints.
The September 11th Memorial
in Lower Manhattan received a million dollar donation
Thursday courtesy of a Swiss foundation.
Given by the Starr
International foundation, it's the largest gift for the
memorial to come from outside the U.S.
So far, the National
September 11th Memorial and Museum has raised over $350
million and hopes to raise at least $25 million more.
The goal is to open the museum by the 10th anniversary of
the attacks.
A 9/11
hero fireman who rushed to Ground Zero
on his day off -- and developed a
irreversible lung injury after working
in the toxic pit -- yesterday left a
Manhattan hospital after receiving a
lifesaving transplant last month.
With his
7-year-old daughter clinging to him and
bagpipes playing "America the
Beautiful," Lt. Martin Fullam -- who got
a single new lung -- was wheeled out of
Columbia Presbyterian Hospital as fellow
firefighters, hospital workers and
relatives cheered him on.
"I just
want to say thank you to everybody --
this is not a road you take on your
own," the retired firefighter said
through a mask protecting him from
infection. "I truly am the luckiest man
in the world.">>>
Just 10 minutes before a gas
explosion leveled a house in Floral Park, Queens on April 24,
firefighters from Ladder 116 were called to another major
emergency, a man trapped under a train at Northern Boulevard and
36th Street in Long Island City.
“It’s not something I have ever
seen before, and I’ve been on the job 20 years,” said Lt.
William Kelly from Ladder 116. “It really was incredible. It was
emotional, draining and there was a lot of adrenaline involved.
”
Firefighters received the call
for a person under a train at 4:41 p.m. And when they arrived at
the station, people were frantically waving firefighters to the
R train platform>>>
A medical
examiner who performed the autopsy on a slain
Staten Island fire marshal admitted the victim
could have been killed a full day earlier than
prosecutors have claimed.
The testimony of
Dr. Kristin Roman backed defense lawyers'
arguments that Janet Mercereau -- on trial for
allegedly killing her husband, Doug -- could
have been out running errands with her kids at
the time.
Prosecutors have
accused Mercereau, 39, of shooting her husband
three times in the head at around 6:30 a.m. on
Dec. 2, 2007, as her kids were sleeping.
Roman testified
that the 39-year-old victim had to have been
killed between three and 30 hours earlier.
Rihanna
Quinn Roddy has been helping the city recover
from the World Trade Center attacks since the
towers collapsed.
"I was working
for Delta Airlines at that time," she said. "I
was on many of the boards, particularly those
involved in tourism, that were helping New York
come back."
Quinn Roddy used
her contacts with various civic groups and
organizations to kick-start the return of
tourism - Delta offered free flights to the city
for a time.
She worked with
musician and former television host John Tesh in
his New York Rising campaign, helped Delta
Airlines open its new Kennedy Airport terminal
and, as a New York & Co. executive board member,
fast-tracked efforts to restore the city's badly
damaged tourism industry.
Now Quinn Roddy,
50, has taken on a job that will shape the lives
of hundreds of families for years to come.
As executive
director of Scholarship America, a national
nonprofit scholarship and educational support
agency, she will administer the $100 million
Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund>>>
Mayor Bloomberg
has announced that, this July he will
permanently close 11 fire companies throughout
the city and another five later in the year.
This will bring the number of Fire department
companies closed by the mayor to 22 since he
took office.
It is foolish for
the city to be closing vital community fire
companies at a time when the FDNY has completed
the four busiest years in its 140 plus history.
While many New
Yorkers may only consider how this affects their
local firehouse, fire companies respond across
borough borders day and night for fire and
medical emergencies, when needed. Bushwick's
Engine 271 - now slated for for closure – is
one such company, responding to an average of
2,550 alarms annually in both Brooklyn and
Queens over the last three years.
On March 18,
local residents got a view of life without the
firehouse, as a three-alarm fire destroyed three
homes and several neighborhood stores adjoining
the Ridgewood Senior Citizen Center. The fire
occurred on a night when Engine 271, just thre
blocks away, was closed for the night by the
mayor and fire commissioner to save money>>>
A Queens mom was
killed Friday night when her house exploded -
sparking a roaring inferno - while Con Edison
was investigating a gas leak, officials said.
The utility
worker who had just lifted a manhole cover was
injured in the earthshaking blast, which
flattened the home and sent debris and flames
flying into the air.
Firefighters
found Ghanwatti Boodram's body in the rubble of
the 260th St. house four hours after the 4:50
p.m. explosion.
Dindial Boodram,
46, a surgical technologist at Jamaica Hospital,
was at work and the couple's three boys - the
eldest is 10 - were in an after-school program
when the explosion occurred.
The distraught
dad, reached at a relative's home Friday night,
said his wife was a nurse at Roosevelt Hospital
and "the most wonderful woman you could ever
imagine.
"My sons aren't
taking it very well," he said, his voice barely
above a whisper and cracking. "We are not very
fine right now."
A neighbor said
the couple's children barely escaped the
explosion.
"She came home
from work and was about to pick up her kids from
school. A few minutes later and the kids would
have been home," said Esau Hanis, 52, a retired
Marine who lives nearby.
Boodram's
next-door neighbors summoned Con Ed to the
tree-lined block in middle-class Floral Park.
Stanley Barth
noticed the electricity in the front rooms of
his house was off and called the utility.
About 20 minutes
later, his wife, Vita, smelled gas and called
again.
"They came pretty
promptly," Stanley Barth said.
The utility
worker checked the basement, found evidence of a
gas leak and went across the street to inspect a
manhole.
"While they were
searching for that gas leak, removing the
manhole cover, the building...exploded," FDNY
Chief of Operations Patrick McNally said>>>
A
spot of blood on a dehumidifier in the girls' bedroom. Three spent shell
casings upstairs. Another casing on the basement floor. A bullet hole in
a bow-and-arrow target sitting on a basement oil heater. A wet bathtub.
Wet clothes in a washing machine. Damp clothes in a dryer.
A dust
broom and dustpan in the dishwasher.
"That was
unusual," Detective Charles Reiss of the
NYPD's Crime Scene Unit recalled of the
freshly washed dust broom and pan he
found when he searched the Oakwood home
on Tarring Street early Sunday morning
after Supervising Fire Marshal Douglas
Mercereau was found shot to death in his
bed on Dec. 2, 2007.
Reiss
took the earlier today in state Supreme
Court, St. George, where Janet Redmond-Mercereau
is on trial for murdering her husband
and trying to cover her tracks.
Each
shell casing found was discharged from
the same semiautomatic Smith & Wesson 9
mm pistol used to kill Mercereau in his
sleep, the detective told jurors.
Prosecutors also allege that Mrs.
Redmond-Mercereau, 40, took target
practice in the basement before shooting
her husband.
After
Mercereau was shot, the former
Tottenville High School English teacher
then tried to cover up the crime by
taking several showers, washing her
clothes and running the gun through a
dishwasher to wipe away fingerprints,
prosecutors charged.
A police
photo revealed a small dust broom and
dust pan inside the dishwasher>>>
The FDNY Foundation honored
Brian Williams, Anchor and
Managing Editor of NBC Nightly
News; Kevin Burke, Chairman and
CEO of Con Edison; and Arthur E.
Imperatore Sr., Founder and CEO
of New York Waterway at the
annual Fire Commissioner’s
Humanitarian Awards on April 23,
and raised close to $1 million
for the nonprofit organization.
“This is a chance for us to
honor people from all walks of
life and thank them for
supporting the Department an all
our first responders,” said Fire
Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta
during the event at the New York
Hilton in Manhattan>>>
A plaque
is dedicated
at Ladder 39
honoring
their
centennial.
The officers and
firefighters of Ladder
39 threw a grand
centennial celebration
on April 24 at their
quarters in the Bronx.
“In the last 100 years,
firefighters have
learned new skills and
started using new
technology,” said Fire
Commissioner Nicholas
Scoppetta. “But it’s
what all of you bring to
this job that makes this
Department what it is.”
During the ceremony, the
members honored Lt.
Edmund McNulty, a member
of Ladder 39, who died
in 1968 from injuries he
suffered while fighting
an all-hands fire in a
freight car at the New
York Central Railroad
Yard in 1959. Members of
his family were on hand
as members of the
company unveiled a
plaque in his honor.
“Forty-one years ago we
told them we’d be there
for them - and we still
are,” said Chief of
Department Salvatore
Cassano>>>
After a fire broke out in neighboring restaurant Community Food & Juice at 9:40 a.m., residents of 600 West 113th St.—the Nussbaum dorm—were evacuated out of their building on Friday morning.
By 11 a.m., the fire was contained and FDNY firefighters confirmed that they would be evacuating the area within 20 minutes, when students would be able to return to their dormitories. At around noon, Columbia Housing Services sent an e-mail to Nussbaum residents saying that two full suites should expect to move. Though Housing has not been able to assess the full extent of the damage, the e-mail says reports "smoke and water damage, as well as some broken flooring and windows. " Read the full text of the e-mail below>>>
