People trapped in Brooklyn building collapse, FDNY reports

All right. As you can see right here, Sky Fox is live right now over the scene of a building collapse in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Dan Rice is up in Sky Fox right now. A lot of flashing lights down there. It looks like a lot of extensive damage. Dan, what can you tell us? Okay, so Linda, this is Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. What you're looking at is the entire side of a building collapsed down onto the ground, a three-story building. If you look there at the structure where that tower ladder's at, you can see inside rooms there, it looks like that entire wall just fell down into a construction site. When we come back out with the camera, you can see the fenced-in area around here where there was construction going on. Again, we are just pulling up onto the scene. We're seeing this for the first time, like you are as well. As we look down here, You see firefighters going through the rubble right now. It is not clear if anybody was trapped inside of that rubble, but I can tell you by the way they are operating at the scene right there, it does appear they may be searching that debris to make sure there is nobody trapped underneath of that wall. Again, what led to this collapse, Linda? That's unknown at this point. We're still trying to gather details, but you can see a very extensive operation going on down here on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. Yeah, Dan, can you do me a favor? Push into the side of the... building that fell onto the construction site. I'm trying to see, does this look like it's a residential building? Is that a bed there on the upper right? It absolutely is. I mean that building there, it looks like it's going to be a business on the bottom floor. Apartments on the upper two floors. You can see the staircase in the middle of that building there with the flashlight where the firefighters standing under the ladder. Go to the right of that where the tower ladder is. That definitely appears to be a bedroom, a bed there. It is unclear what's going on on the other side of the building there, but this is definitely apartments and residential area on the upper two floors of that building. It's almost like they peeled back the wall, just exposed it, like almost like a kid's dollhouse. Yeah, that's a really good explanation there and visual. Thank you. So, Dan, it looks like at this point we don't know if there are any people who are injured, any people who are trapped, but you can see... There are probably hundreds of firefighters on the scene right now and they are starting to go through that rubble and these are the experts that know how to do this, go through that rubble piece by piece to see if anybody is trapped underneath that because it was an active construction site where the side of the building, it fell on top of it. That's what it appears, Linda. As you said, you can see the firefighters meticulously going through that construction site. You can see that excavator in the hole there where the construction was going on, and that debris appears to have fallen down where the excavator was working. So, you know, at this point, it's too early for us to tell what exactly happened, but it almost appears like an active construction site. Maybe something was moved that perhaps shifted something near that building, bringing down that wall. Again, the investigators will get at it, and they'll do their investigation. As we watch this, I mean, we've seen these stories before, Linda, you and I both, and when you see the firefighters working as feverishly as they are down there right now, it does give you that sense of urgency, like they may be looking for at least a person or more, again, on the ground. Nobody has confirmed yet if anybody is trapped under that debris. Because if it is an active site and people were still on the job, there could be dozens of people who were on that site. At that location, when this building collapsed, do me a favor, Dan, show me the side of the residential building again, because it looks like a very clean cut off the side of the building. It looks like somebody just came with a knife and just cut it right off, and then it fell onto the construction site. It's not jagged looking, there are not holes in the side, it's just a clean cut. So on that building you're describing, absolutely. But if you look at the back of the building, Linda, you can see what it looks like. Another building may have been between the construction site and the building you're looking at, because it looks like the back wall, the last, almost like on an angle, the lower two floors are still standing on that back wall, but everything else in front of it to the street is missing. So I don't know. It may have been another building that when part of that fell, it pulled the wall from the building you're describing with it. And like you said, almost like a surgical cut. It came down very clean, almost like when you look underneath the tower ladder, you can see the sheetrock of a wall from the second floor apartment is still standing, but the outside wall is missing. But it's not clear if there was another building between the one that you're describing and the debris we see in that pit. Right. Okay, Dan, do me a favor. Pull out a little bit wider there so that we can see the number of FDNY trucks, any ambulances on the scene there. I would imagine there would be multiple ambulances there as well. Oh, my goodness. Look at that. For at least two to three blocks closed off there. Absolutely. As a matter of fact, here to the south, we can see a couple of ambulances staged on Bedford Avenue there. You have at least three or at least two in that video there from the FDNY in a private hospital. We come back up here. The police tape is already going up. And you can see a sea of red lights, the FDNY, EMS, all police, all down here working that scene. And Dan, what time did, look at that, what time did this happen? The reports we're getting is shortly after 4. I believe the first call came in around 4:01 p.m. About 4:01 p.m. I mean, that is a massive response. Yeah, so this is less than an hour old. Oh, absolutely. And again, our pilot Frank Cochran is bringing the helicopter around. And you can see from this angle that wall we were talking about before, the side of that building. Thank you. Again, the best way I can describe it is a child's dollhouse has opened up here is what it looks like. Okay, I'm looking at Slack right now for Fox 5, and we are getting word from the NYPD, the partial building collapse, it's at 1321 and 1323 Flatbush Avenue, what appears to be a residential building, as you and I were just talking about, five aided, removed from the scene are being treated, so five people... have been removed from the scene from what we know so far the NYPD reporting that to Fox 5. Let me see here they're saying the call came in at 1601 so 401 a collapse it confirmed people were trapped it's a three-story building two people being evaluated at this time the search is continuing the operation is going is ongoing And FDNY, obviously, press is on the scene, so they will be having some type of a news conference at some point, I would imagine, within the next couple of hours to update the media on exactly what's going on. But again, you can see there have to be at least 100 firefighters on the scene at this point, and as you described, feverishly going through this debris, searching for possible victims who could be trapped. Trapped under this rubble. And, Linda, you know, I've been watching as you were talking there. If you look in the center of the video where you can see the firefighters climbing, they have, like, those five-gallon buckets you would see from a hardware store. And we've seen them just filling them up. And just throwing the debris off to the side. So it appears that they're trying to find something in that particular area. You see the gentleman with the blue helmets on. Those are usually the ones that are search and rescue, who know how to get in and out of this debris without shifting it, causing more damage and more harm to people who may be inside. So it appears to me, again, unconfirmed, that they believe there may still be people under that debris. Well, you know, Dan, they could be hearing, actually, people screaming. Screaming or calling out for help. They could also be hearing that. Absolutely. And at some point, whether it happened before we got here or it may yet happen, usually you'll see them bring the dogs in, too, to come in and try to search for signs of life. Okay. I'm not seeing any dogs at this point. Do you see any, Dan? No. I don't at this point, as I said, it may have happened before we got here. I'm not sure yet, but you can definitely see them on that pile trying to get through it as gingerly, but as fast as they can. Right. And again, a massive response. And the NYPD reporting it's a partial building collapse. It's at 1321 and 1323 Flatbush Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The residential building there, as you and I were talking about, it's got that clean cut and it looks like the side of the building just fell over onto an active construction site right next to it. And now the FDNY feverishly looking for people who possibly could be trapped under all of this mountain of debris. And they all, they had to go through it all by hand, you know, also. It's like, you know, they can't use that machinery that's down there to move pieces of debris. They're all doing it by hand. This is incredible here. And again, this happened, I need your help. This happened about 4 o'clock this afternoon. Hundreds of FDNY on the scene. I'm sorry, I'm in the process here of relocating. Anyway, hundreds of people on the scene there, firefighters on the scene. I'm feverishly looking for possible people who could be trapped underneath all of that rubble and debris. Dan, anything else that you can fill us in on? The FDNY. I'm sorry, what's that? At this point, like I said, right now it's just a massive operation by the FDNY. We can see firefighters on the sidewalk as well moving into position. Again, to remind people, this is an active construction site. You see kind of a pit. Below street level where that piece of machinery is and as they were working down there, parts of this building next door fell down. So this is what you're looking at now is the fire department trying to go through all that debris, trying to see if they can get to anybody who may be trapped underneath that debris at this time. Okay, Dan, Dan Rice, stay with us in Sky Fox.