2008 Woodie Awards
4 killed, 3 missing in crane accident
By: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Issue date: 3/17/08 Section: Nation
NEW YORK - Three people were still listed as missing yesterday as rescue teams picked through the rubble of a town house crushed by a toppling construction crane in an accident that killed four construction workers.
Crews removed one section of the 19-story-tall crane that crashed onto the four-story brownstone and seriously damaged five other buildings in an affluent East Side neighborhood. Rescuers were waiting for removal of the largest pieces of debris so they could intensify their search for possible survivors, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday.
The missing people were two other construction workers and a woman who was staying at an apartment in the town house, the mayor said.
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said that "with each passing hour, things get a little more grim."
Twenty-four others were injured, including 11 first responders, Bloomberg said. Eight remained hospitalized yesterday, officials said.
The missing woman had come from Miami to visit a friend who lived in the town house and to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in the city, said John LeGreco, owner of Fubar, a tavern on the ground floor. The woman's friend was rescued, he said.
The mayor called the collapse, at the construction site of a new high-rise condo building, one of the city's worst construction accidents.
The crane broke into pieces Saturday afternoon as it came loose from its supports, toppling across 51st Street and the buildings between there and 50th Street. One section that was lying on top of the remains of the town house jutted into 50th Street.
"I heard a big crash, and I saw dust immediately," said Maureen Shea, a 66-year-old retired banker who was lying in bed talking on the phone when she glanced out her window and saw bricks raining from the sky. "I thought the crane was coming in my window."
The four victims were identified as construction workers Wayne Bleidner, 51, of Pelham; Brad Cohen; Anthony Mazza, 39; and Aaron Stephens, 45, of New York City, police said yesterday.
Crews removed one section of the 19-story-tall crane that crashed onto the four-story brownstone and seriously damaged five other buildings in an affluent East Side neighborhood. Rescuers were waiting for removal of the largest pieces of debris so they could intensify their search for possible survivors, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday.
The missing people were two other construction workers and a woman who was staying at an apartment in the town house, the mayor said.
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said that "with each passing hour, things get a little more grim."
Twenty-four others were injured, including 11 first responders, Bloomberg said. Eight remained hospitalized yesterday, officials said.
The missing woman had come from Miami to visit a friend who lived in the town house and to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in the city, said John LeGreco, owner of Fubar, a tavern on the ground floor. The woman's friend was rescued, he said.
The mayor called the collapse, at the construction site of a new high-rise condo building, one of the city's worst construction accidents.
The crane broke into pieces Saturday afternoon as it came loose from its supports, toppling across 51st Street and the buildings between there and 50th Street. One section that was lying on top of the remains of the town house jutted into 50th Street.
"I heard a big crash, and I saw dust immediately," said Maureen Shea, a 66-year-old retired banker who was lying in bed talking on the phone when she glanced out her window and saw bricks raining from the sky. "I thought the crane was coming in my window."
The four victims were identified as construction workers Wayne Bleidner, 51, of Pelham; Brad Cohen; Anthony Mazza, 39; and Aaron Stephens, 45, of New York City, police said yesterday.
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