3 workers hurt in collapse of NYC building wall

Three construction workers were hurt — one critically — when the rear wall of a building under demolition collapsed in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. 

The wall of the three-story unoccupied building — which has five open city Buildings Department violations against it — gave way around 1 p.m., leaving a hardhat crushed beneath the debris, according to the FDNY. 

“When the wall collapsed, one of the construction workers was trapped by the debris, and two of the workers fell on top of the debris.” FDNY Chief of Department John Hodgens said at a press conference at the scene on Lafayette Street near Canal Street, where Mayor Eric Adams and Fire Department Commissioner Laura Kavanagh went to after the incident.

Acting DOB Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik said at the presser that the open violations against the building appear to be connected to its collapse. 

“One of the violations was for overloading work level, so it’s possible,” the commish said. “It’s [a] preliminary indication that [that’s] how it began.”

The worker buried in the rubble had to be dug out by firefighters, who were at the scene in under 4 minutes, the chief said. 

The badly hurt man was taken to Bellevue Hospital with life-threatening injuries, and two other people who suffered non-life-threatening injuries were treated at the scene, officials said.

“It just happened suddenly,” said a security guard who was working nearby.

“We were all out here” at the time, she told The Post. “There was no noise. It’s like a hole in the building they were working in.

“A lady came out crying and saying there were people in the building.”

The building was slapped with five city Department of Buildings safety violations Feb. 6, which remain open, according to online records.

One of the violations is related to 50 tons of 3×12 lumber stored on the first floor, causing an overload. 

Another involves a supported scaffold in place with tarps on each side, causing a hazardous condition.

Acting DOB Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik confirmed those violations at the presser but added the site was fully permitted. 

A rep for the DOB its personnel “are on the scene now, investigation ongoing.”