Bronx partial building collapse has some residents scared to return. Here’s the latest on the investigation.

A dramatic partial building collapse that sent bricks crumbling nearly 20 stories Wednesday in the Bronx remains under investigation.

Remarkably, no one was hurt. Still, many residents say other ongoing safety issues in the NYCHA high-rise need to be addressed. 

Investigators say Bronx high-rise was turning on heat for season

The explosion occurred at about 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, on Alexander Ave. near E. 138th Street, which is part of the New York City Housing Authority’s Mitchel Houses in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. 

Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

A safety fence now surrounds the collapse zone in a courtyard at the Mitchel Houses on Alexander Avenue in the Mott Haven section. 

City agencies continue their cleanup and inspection efforts, as they try to pinpoint the cause of the explosion, which resulted in an entire corner of the high-rise collapsing Wednesday morning. Officials said the force came from the boiler room and sent shockwaves up the chimney. 

The city says 38 apartments were issued vacate orders, and more than 140 residents were relocated out of an abundance of caution. Gas has also been shut off in the entire complex.  

“Oct. 1 is when the city turns on the heat. So there was an individual downstairs that was turning on the system,” Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry said Wednesday night. “This is an investigative theory, that the pilot, before it was lit, caused this incident to happen.”

Collapse leaves Bronx residents concerned about conditions

The incinerator shaft of a Bronx building collapsed after a gas explosion on Oct. 1, 2025. 

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Mimi Singleton and her service dog are now staying in a hotel after they were evacuated from her second-floor apartment.

“You have one window that’s blown in … and they said just the floors and the walls gotta be replaced,” she said.

Singleton is dealing with several health issues and says she’ll have to be relocated to permanent housing elsewhere.

“The boiler room has erupted twice, which, it caused floods and stuff,” she said.

Noel Ramos, who has lived in the building for more than two decades, said he realized something was wrong when he heard a loud blast and then the air conditioning unit in his daughter’s room fell out. He said they took off running and were able to pick up some necessities, including two machines his children with special needs use. 

His son has spina bifida, is nonambulatory, nonverbal and has to be fed through a tube. His daughter has autism and is epileptic, and his wife suffers from seizures. 

So far, the family is registered with the Red Cross, but he said they’re split up and staying in different places. His 32-year-old son remains in the hospital and won’t be released until he can be transferred to someplace stable. 

“Even though my wife got the voucher saying that she can go to a motel, the Eastchester, but the hospital won’t release my son to an unsuitable [location], you see what I’m saying? So, really, what am I supposed to do?” Ramos said.

Give NYCHA funding it needs, residents and lawmakers say

Other residents who have been cleared to stay in their homes said they aren’t sure they want to. Many said the building has a laundry list of other safety issues.

Ramos joined other residents for a rally Thursday morning, calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to provide NYCHA with the funding to maintain and upgrade its buildings to prevent events like the one Wednesday from happening again.

“Public housing has been so systematically starved of funding that it has a capital need of $80 billion and counting,” Rep. Ritchie Torres said.

A spokesperson from the governor’s office says the federal government’s decades of disinvestment in NYCHA has led to some of the conditions residents are seeing, and that under Hochul’s leadership, the state has unlocked $1.6 billion in capital funding to expedite repairs.

According to city records, the building at 205 Alexander Ave. has two active violations from the Department of Buildings dating to 2020 for unsafe facades. The most recent is from February 2024.