A construction crane in New York City caught fire and collapsed Wednesday morning, hitting a building before crashing down on a busy street.
Six people were injured, including two firefighters, after the crane collapsed while working on an empty 54-story building near Hudson Yards, authorities said according to The New York Post. The construction crane was carrying 16 tons of concrete when its cabin area caught fire around 7:30 a.m. Video of the incident showed the smoking crane fall into a building across the street from where it was working before it crashed onto the street as people ran away from the danger.
WATCH:
A large crane on a high-rise building caught fire and collapsed in Manhattan.
Debris on the ground. Smoke in the air.pic.twitter.com/sFEGs92CTo
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) July 26, 2023
“You see the debris on the street, this could have been much worse. We were fortunate that this was not a busy time of day,” Mayor Eric Adams said after arriving on the scene. “We’re also fortunate that first responders responded in such a manner and made the right evaluation of how to look at the fire and crisis we were presented with and came up with [the right solution].”
FDNY officials said the engine part of the crane caught fire and the operator attempted to put it out but could not, PIX 11 reported.
“The fire overwhelmed the crane operator and he had to exit the crane,” one FDNY official said.
“All I heard was a loud boom,” construction worker Max Montanez told the Post. “It shook the building. We just all started running down the stairs. Guys [were] getting stampeded on. It was bad.”
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Four civilians suffered minor injuries when they were hit by falling debris and two firefighters also suffered non-life-threatening injuries. At least three people were hospitalized.
Crane collapses have happened before in the Big Apple. In 2016, a construction crane that was nearly 600 feet tall crashed into pedestrians and parked cars, killing one person on his way to work and injuring three others.
