Crews search rubble after crane collapse

Three people are still listed as missing as rescue teams pick through the rubble of a townhouse crushed by a toppling construction crane in an accident that killed four construction workers.

Crews removed one section of the 19-storey-tall crane that crashed onto the fourstorey brownstone and seriously damaged five other buildings in an affluent East Side neighbourhood. Rescuers were waiting for removal of the largest pieces of debris so they could intensify their search for possible survivors, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Sunday.

The missing people were two other construction workers and a woman who was staying at an apartment in the townhouse, the mayor said.

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said: "With each passing hour, things get a little more grim."

Twenty-four others were injured, including 11 first responders, Bloomberg said. Eight remained hospitalised, officials said.

The missing woman had come from Miami to visit a friend who lived in the townhouse and to celebrate St Patrick's Day in the city, said John LeGreco, owner of Fubar, a tavern on the ground floor. The woman's friend was rescued, he said.

The mayor called the collapse, at the construction site of a new high-rise condominium, one of the city's worst construction accidents.

The crane broke into pieces on Saturday afternoon as it came loose from its supports, toppling across 51st Street and the buildings between there and 50th Street. One section lying on top of the remains of the townhouse jutted into 50th Street.

"I heard a big crash, and I saw dust immediately," said Maureen Shea, a 66-year-old retired banker who was lying in bed talking on the phone when she glanced out her window and saw bricks raining from the sky. "I thought the crane was coming in my window."

The four victims were identified as construction workers Wayne Bleidner, 51, of Pelham, New York; Brad Cohen; Anthony Mazza, 39; and Aaron Stephens, 45, of New York City, police said.

Construction crews on Sunday positioned a second crane to help remove pieces of the toppled structure and started removing piles of debris from the street.

The fallen crane has been attached at various points to the side of a half-built apartment tower. The crane was to have been extended on Saturday so workers could start work on a new level of the planned 43-storey building, said an owner of the company that manages the construction site.

A piece of steel fell and sheared off one of the ties holding it to the building, causing the structure to detach and topple, said Stephen Kaplan, an owner of the Reliance Construction Group.

"It was an absolute freak accident," he said Saturday. "All the piece of steel had to do was fall slightly left or right, and nothing would have happened."

Kaplan said the company had subcontracted the work to different companies and was not in charge of the crane. There was no immediate response to calls and an email seeking comment from the crane's owner, New York Crane & Equipment Corp.

Neighbours said they had complained to the city about the crane.

"I warned the Buildings Department on March 4 that it was not sufficiently braced against the building," said Bruce Silberblatt, a retired contractor and vice-president of the Turtle Bay Neighbourhood Association.

The city had issued 13 violations at the construction site in the past 27 months.

Source: The Age