A midtown Manhattan building was evacuated Tuesday afternoon after steel beams started “bending like cigarettes,” as one expert put it, leaving tourists and locals scrambling for hotel rooms to spend the night.
After first responders determined the building was unstable, they started evacuations while “establishing a collapse zone,” Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said during a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
“They obviously didn’t add the right amount of steel, so the north side is crumbling,” Steamfitters union rep Cliff Johnson told local media. “The I-beams are bending like cigarettes in there, which is super dangerous.”
After finding no additional movement of the damaged columns, city officials allowed workers to start making emergency repairs Tuesday evening, the Associated Press reported.
But with the “collapse zone” still in effect, guests at the nearby Hampton Inn Manhattan Grand Central and Westin New York Grand Central were left to find new accommodations for the night, according to The New York Times.
“We just need a place to stay,” Christy Walls from West Virginia told the Times.
Walls was supposed to check into the Hampton Inn with her two children and college roommate during their vacation to see The Outsiders on Broadway, but the hotel was evacuated.
A group of three tourists from North Carolina was supposed to stay at the Westin for a couple of days before departing on an ocean cruise.
“I saw a breaking-news story pop up on Twitter,” 33-year-old Nika Whitsett, who was part of the group, told the New York Post. “I opened it and saw the streets. I said, ‘Oh, 42nd and Second. That’s where we’re headed!’”
Not only will tourists be looking for new accommodations, but locals will also have to try to check into a hotel or stay with a loved one due to the evacuations.
“Worst-case scenario, I probably will have to find a hotel somewhere,’’ Dr. Stefan Mitra, who had just come home from a 24-hour shift at a neurosurgery unit in the Bronx, told the Post. “There’s no other option. I can’t just wait forever.”
A 22-year-old local named Allie said that officials told her it could be two weeks until she can go back to her apartment.
“I’m really hoping that that’s some very cautious estimate,” she told the Post.
Residents of one building — 222 East 44th Street — were allowed to return home at around 7.30 p.m. Tuesday, NBC New York reported. Officials are continuing to evaluate additional structures nearby, the outlet added.
However, it’s unclear when the “collapse zone” will be lifted. The broader city, including subway lines, does not appear to be affected.
The incident began at around 8 a.m., when fire crews were called to the 37-story building at 235 East 42nd Street near Grand Central Station after bricks began to fall from the building. Construction crews were working to convert the structure from its former Pfizer headquarters into 1,600 apartments. The workers noticed the structural support beams buckling on the 21st and 22nd floors, prompting the evacuation.
“Two structural columns have buckled, in addition to multiple cracks and sagging floors. The building remains unstable,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during the press conference.
There were no injuries reported, and all construction workers were accounted for, Mamdani said.
There were 50 units from the New York City Fire Department and over 150 fire and EMS personnel at the scene at midday.
Crowds had gathered near the police barricades to see crews rushing to keep the building from falling. At one point, spectators were pushed back from the perimeter set up by New York police.
Several nearby buildings, including a hotel and a school, were evacuated as a precaution, the New York City Fire Department told The Independent.
The buildings evacuated include 225 East 43rd Street, 221 East 43rd Street, 815 2nd Avenue, 212 East 43rd Street, 211 East 43rd Street, 235 East 42nd Street and 210 East 43rd Street.
The NYPD closed East 40th to 45th Street between First and Third avenues to tend to the scene. No pedestrian or vehicle traffic was allowed in that area for fear the building could collapse and debris would spread.
No trains at the Grand Central Station were impacted by the closure.
Fire officials said if the building, which has a steel frame, were to collapse, it would be more localized, and not a total collapse.
