A three-story apartment building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn, collapsed shortly after 4 p.m. on Wednesday, November 11, falling into the open construction pit beside it, an excavation site at 2625 Bedford Avenue. The first 911 call came at 4:01 p.m., firefighters arrived in under a minute, and more than 250 first responders joined the search of the rubble. Two people died at the scene. Seventeen people were injured, including seven children. Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said there were 19 patients in all: four in critical condition, 12 stable, and one firefighter with minor injuries. City officials including Mayor Zohran Mamdani responded as the operation continued into the night.
The building dated from 1930 and held four apartments above a ground-floor medical-uniforms store. How many people were inside when it fell was not immediately known, and officials said late Wednesday they did not know whether everyone was accounted for. Chief of Department John Esposito said the search could continue for several days as crews worked through the debris. Local reports identified one man killed as Jose Luis Caguana, 26, an immigrant from Ecuador who had been in the United States about six years, according to his brother. Officials had not formally released the names of those killed on Wednesday night.
No official cause has been given. Workers had been excavating the lot next door, and a developer had submitted plans for a nine-story building on that site that had not yet been approved. The Department of Buildings and law enforcement will lead the investigation into why the building came down. The photograph in this video is a file photo of Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, taken on June 17, 2024, by CityLimitsJunction for Wikimedia Commons under a CC0 dedication. It does not show the collapse. The other screens are original Zark News graphics and are labeled as a Zark News illustration.
Full story: https://zarknews.com/brooklyn-flatbush-building-collapse-two-dead-search/
Sources: Reuters and New York City officials • November 11, 2026. File photo: CityLimitsJunction / Wikimedia Commons (CC0). Zark News illustration.
