Brooklyn building collapse: Investigation latest, what’s next for victims and families

I know Francis Wang, you were out there, or you were in the newsroom yesterday, and you were taking a closer look at where people can go for help, because clearly we saw from Nikki's reporting that there is a lot still left to be done, and then also what went wrong. Let's start with the what went wrong part, because we're seeing now that there are five entities as the mayor. Discuss that they may be looking at. What do we know about what he's talking about there? Yeah. So yesterday, the mayor and city officials announced that there are five entities that they have linked to this construction site that are also linked to about 100 construction sites all across the city. So their urgency was to look into those construction sites to make sure this doesn't happen anywhere else. Of course, they did not identify the entities and. We've got to bring up the Outlook outage. That made it really difficult for following up and asking questions. You're talking about the Microsoft outage that we've been talking about? So that made it more difficult in some sense to try and get some more information quickly? Right, because that's how we reach out to so many people and correspond. But I have followed up through going through city filings, documents, and records. I believe I have the five entities he's mentioned. I've reached out to the Department of Buildings as well as the mayor's office to see if they can confirm. I don't want to identify them just yet because... We haven't reached out to them to give them their perspective as well. But I was able to find out who the contractor was, and I was able to find their permits for excavation on the construction site. And this is something that caught my eye, Dan. There was actually a permit request submitted the day before the building collapsed by this contractor. Interesting. The expected work date was set to start. On November 10th, which was the day of the collapse. In addition to those records, I found a geotechnical report dating back to November of 2025. So nearly a year before the collapse. This is something that a lot of people have been commenting on. They've been wondering about the excavation work, the construction site, what went wrong here. So I wanna break this down because I think it's important to kind of set the tone of what was expected, what we thought would happen based off of the filings and kind of the procedures. Obviously going to try to figure out what went wrong. So the report states that the buildings along this construction site's line were expected to need underpinning. So that's essentially- Can we just pause the video there? And Gab, can we pause the video and then just kind of take a full and then we'll take a closer look? Because what we're looking at here is the building has collapsed. And then there's the construction site where it all fell into, which is where the excavator is and where all the FDNY members are. And so that area is what we're talking about when it comes to the underpinning and stabilizing of that ground, because it's an older building. And if you start digging next to it, it could all slide in. Is that is that sort of what we're getting at there? Yeah, it's a nearly 100 year old building. As I mentioned on Newsroom Live yesterday, a pre construction survey found that. That wall between the building that collapsed and the construction site was already rated in poor conditions. It was documented to have visible cracks. So there was a lot of concern between the two. The report said that the underpinning would have been necessary to support and strengthen the existing foundation. It also called for shoring along the property line. So we're talking about temporary support to use to keep the soil and the structure stable during excavation, which we know was what was happening during this time. We know that protective measures were being discussed well before the collapse. What we don't know and are still waiting to find out, and so is the Department of Buildings, of course, is what went wrong. Maybe what procedures weren't followed or if there was some sort of miscommunication between what the expectations that were set were meant to be and what actually unfolded. And so this next phase will be not only looking here, but at construction sites all across the city, right? I mean, that's what the mayor is talking about, looking and seeing if there are other... Are there sites that these businesses are involved with that may have an issue one way or the other? Is that kind of what the mayor was talking about? Yeah, and even looking at the contractor and looking at the other permit, they have active permits for other construction sites right now. I also heard from a lot of viewers and followers on social media who've been following this closely saying you should check out this property. This is a contractor I've heard of before, and I know they're linked to this. So these are clearly entities, I'm going to use that term because we're talking not just contractors, but engineers, inspectors as well. Well, these are clearly entities that are known to many of the communities, it sounds like, and have ties to various construction sites all across the city. And let's talk about the communities just for a second, because something else that you were looking into is how people are going to need help and where they can go for help. What did you learn about that? I think the two biggest responses to this, in addition to condolences to the families and those impacted, what went wrong and how can we help? So even in these weather conditions you see here, these are volunteers with World Central Kitchen. They are a nonprofit that pops up so quickly all across the world. They've responded to... Building collapses before they're feeding first responders who are still at the scene, in addition to families who just need a hot meal. They're there. Now, we're heading into the weekend, so it's important to note a lot of the places that are asking for donations to be dropped off, their hours are weekdays. But the Brooklyn YMCA is open this weekend. And a lot of the things that are needed, Dan, everything from gift cards to cash donations, meals we see here, that's something that so many families are in desperate need of right now, especially with the weather weather conditions, but The YMCA is the place to go that is open this weekend. Okay, and I know there's supposed to be a news conference there a little later on with some of the people who are concerned, American Red Cross, things along those lines. So we'll be watching out for that as well. Frances, thank you very much. Appreciate your reporting on this. I know it's been a lot to sort of unfold and unpack, and a lot of it is public record. You just sort of have to dig a little deeper into the record to pull out what you're looking for. Yeah, and it's interesting because I'm looking into a lot of the things that The officials with Department of Buildings are looking into as well. And so when I say we don't have all the answers, neither do the officials. But these gives us some context clues and to figure out maybe what went wrong or at least what was supposed to be happening. All right. Francis, thank you very much.