Six injured after construction crane catches fire in NYC and hits building
NEW YORK — A tall construction crane caught fire in Manhattan on Wednesday morning, injuring six people — including two firefighters — as it crashed into a neighboring building before falling to the street.
Officials received a report around 7:30 a.m. of a fire in the engine compartment of a crane operating at 550 10th Avenue in Midtown, about 45 stories up and carrying 16 tons of concrete.
Footage posted on social media showed smoke billowing out of the car of the crane, and its arm striking a building across the street as it fell. Pedestrians could also be seen running from the area.
Four civilians and two firefighters suffered non-life-threatening injuries from the incident, officials said. One of the firefighters was experiencing chest pains and was taken to the hospital. The area around 10th and 11th avenues between 41st and 42nd street was closed to traffic, and the NYPD advised New Yorkers to avoid it.
“As you see from the debris on the street, this could have been much worse,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference at the scene. “We are extremely fortunate, number one, that we were not during the busy time of the day.”
The site of the collapse at 10th Avenue and 41st street is close to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and an entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel to New Jersey. Both reported delays on Wednesday morning due to FDNY activity.
“We were also fortunate that the men and women of FDNY and our first responders responded in such a manner and properly made the right evaluation of how to look at the fire that we were presented and the crisis we were presented and coming up with the right, effective solution to minimize any additional injuries,” the mayor added.
The general contractor for the project under construction, intended to be a 54-story, mixed-use building, is Monadnock Construction, said Jimmy Oddo, commissioner of the Department of Buildings.
“There are lots of people who are part of the crane operation. There’s an engineer that writes up the plans; there’s essentially a general contractor; there’s the user. We will be looking at all those folks,” Oddo said.
Includes reporting from the Associated Press.