NEW YORK — Firefighters ended their search of the collapsed Flatbush building on Thursday afternoon and confirmed the final toll: eight people dead, including two children and two construction workers, and 18 injured, New York City officials said.
The three-story building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue fell into the open excavation next door at 2625 Bedford Avenue at about 4 p.m. on Wednesday, November 11. The Fire Department said rescue operations concluded at 3:37 p.m. Eastern on Thursday after crews determined there were no more victims at the site, which was handed to the Department of Buildings and the Police Department. More than 250 firefighters and emergency medical personnel worked the pile over about 24 hours.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said six of the dead were recovered from the rubble and two died after being taken to hospital. Of the 18 injured, 14 were civilians and four were firefighters, and one person was in critical condition. Police have identified all eight of the dead. They include Nicole Daniela Salvada Rodriguez, 9, and her cousin Kevin Santiago Reyes Gonzalez, 10, according to local reporting of the police identifications.
The Department of Buildings has put an early finding in writing: unsafe construction work at the excavation next door brought the 1930 building down, according to local reporting. City records show excavation permits for the adjoining site were issued in September 2026, and the work had drawn a violation for continuing during a stop-work order. Officials have stressed that a permit is not a finding of cause, and the formal investigation, now joined by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, continues. The possibility of criminal charges has not been ruled out, according to the BBC.
Mamdani ordered inspections at about 100 construction sites linked to five entities tied to the neighbouring project. Buildings officials issued full vacate orders for 1323, 1325 and 1327 Flatbush Avenue and a full stop-work order on the adjacent site. The collapsed building, owned by Isolag Realty Corp. according to property records, held a store at street level with apartments above.
Zark News first reported the collapse on Wednesday, when the confirmed toll stood at two dead and 17 injured and the search was still under way. Thursday’s conclusion closes the rescue phase of the story and opens the accountability phase: what the excavation crews did, what inspectors knew, and why a building full of families was left standing beside a pit that officials now say undermined it.
For Flatbush, a dense, largely immigrant neighbourhood, the questions are practical as well as legal. Residents of the vacated buildings beside the site do not know when they can go home, and businesses on the avenue face a cordoned-off block. The city has said support will be offered to those displaced, and the mayor has promised that the investigation’s findings will be made public.
What happens next is the Buildings Department and district attorney investigation, the 100-site inspection sweep, and the first court filings if prosecutors or families bring them. Zark News will update this story as officials release the investigation’s findings.
Sources: 6sqft, summarising city officials; BBC reporting via The Local US.
