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FDNY Finds Three Remaining Crane Collapse Bodies; Death Toll at Seven

Photograph above taken of the crane's boom, leaning against 300 East 51st Street, with another crane standing by to remove it, by digiart2001 on Flickr; photograph below of a fire hose - residents are getting water from fire trucks - by AllwaysNY on Flickr

Rescue crews have recovered the bodies of three people missing since Saturday's fatal crane collapse from a construction site at 303 East 51st Street onto other buildings on East 51st and East 50th Streets. These three victims were two construction workers and one woman who had been visiting a friend for St. Patrick's Day. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta had told reporters yesterday, “We’re still calling it a search operation, though with each passing hour, things are getting more grim."

John Gallego and his friend from Florida, Odin Torres, were in his apartment at 305 East 50th Street on Saturday afternoon when the crane's jib crushed the four-story townhouse. Gallego's cries were overheard by rescue workers who dug through the debris with their hands. FDNY paramedic Marco Girao said, "We got the call over the radio, and it sounded really frantic. We got there minutes later, and I hate to say this, it looked like 9/11 with people running around and this dust on everything and everyone." Gallego was "in a small air pocket more than two dozen feet under the rubble."

Mayor Bloomberg said it's believed a steel collar, which is used to help brace cranes to buildings, "fell and cut the attachment at the ninth floor." The NY Times has a good graphic illustrating the crane and reports the collar, which weighs about 12,000 pounds, may have fallen from the eighteenth floor. The Department of Buildings is also looking at whether "a series of hoists and nylon straps used to hold it temporarily in place were strong enough to sustain its weight."

Families are remembering the victims so far, four construction workers, as brave men who loved their work. Other residents continue to be angry at the developer, contractor and Buildings Department for ignoring their concerns. The Mayor tried to reassure New Yorkers, when there are 250 cranes in operations every day, that this crane was adequately secured, "This is a very tragic but also a very rare occurrence."

But one man, retired iron worker Kerry Walker who lived in the top floor of 305 East 50th Street, the devastated townhouse, told his son-in-law, "He knows all about cranes and said this one had no braces, everything was too minimal. He told one friend on the phone that 'if you don't hear from me, it's because the crane fell on my house."' Walker managed to survive because he went to buy his wife aspirin. And retired contractor Bruce Silberblatt actually called the DOB to complain about the crane not being secured.

Tekið af Gothamist

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