MIDTOWN EAST, Manhattan (WABC) — Several floors of a Midtown Manhattan office building that’s under construction are caving in on Tuesday, prompting the evacuation of several adjacent buildings and street closures.
The high-rise, at 235 E. 42nd St., is on the corner of East 42nd Street and Second Avenue and is the former headquarters of the Pfizer pharmaceutical company and is under conversion to residential use.
Around 8 a.m., construction workers noticed cracks inside the building. The FDNY say the workers spotted structural support beams beginning to buckle on the 21st and 22nd floors and self-evacuated.
An image from inside the building shows a buckling beam.
Officials say that caused the 21st to 26st floors of the 38-story building to start caving under the stress.
Multiple buildings have been evacuated, including a hotel and a school.
Video shows the interior of an unstable building that sparked evacuations in Midtown on Tuesday.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani advised anyone in the area to follow the instructions of first responders on the ground.
“Now luckily there have been no injuries to report at this time, all workers are accounted for, the building has been evacuated, a number of tall buildings in the area are also being evacuated at this time, a school with about 400 children has also been evacuated,” Mamdani said.
The FDNY said the following buildings have been evacuated:
Of the evacuated buildings, 231 East 43rd Street is the Hampton Inn Manhattan Grand Central and guests have been evacuated out of their rooms.
Pedestrian and vehicular traffic is closed on East 42nd Street between Second and Third avenues.
Second Avenue is closed from 38th to 44th streets and 43rd and 44th streets are closed between Second and Third avenues.
Metro Loft, the developer of the conversion project, released a statement saying, “We are working closely with the Department of Buildings to understand the full scope of the situation. The safety of our workers and the public has always been, and remains, our top priority.”
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