At least 2 killed, 17 hurt in Brooklyn building collapse

At least two people were killed and 17 others injured Wednesday in Brooklyn when one building collapsed and a second building was significantly damaged, authorities said. 

The collapse occurred just after 4 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday at a three-story building on Flatbush Avenue near Bedford Avenue in Flatbush.

The New York City Police Department said a building at 1321 Flatbush Ave. completely collapsed, while the side of an adjacent building 1323 Flatbush Ave. was torn off in the process. 

According to police, the building that fully collapsed was occupied by residents at the time. Photos and video from the scene showed the exposed interiors of stairwells and apartments in the neighboring building. The cause of the collapse is still unknown.

The site next to those two buildings was vacant and under construction, officials said.

Two people were killed and at least 17 others were injured, including seven children, officials said. New York City Fire Department officials said that of the injured, four people were in critical condition and 13 people were in stable condition, including one firefighter with minor injuries.

FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said investigators do not know how many people were still in the collapse zone. A major technical rescue operation was ongoing. Hundreds of firefighters could be seen sifting through the rubble by hand and breaking through a collapsed wall to search underneath it. K-9 units were also canvassing the debris.

CBS News New York cameras captured crews pulling one survivor from the rubble at around 6:15 p.m. A man on the scene said that the survivor was his pregnant wife.

Drivers were encouraged to avoid the area and should expect traffic delays and road closures, officials said. A reception center for displaced residents was set up at the Flatbush YMCA.

The New York City Department of Buildings said its commissioner and investigators were sent to the site to assist with recovery operations and conduct structural stability inspections of nearby buildings.

Meanwhile, city records show that a contractor was given a violation over activity at the vacant lot adjacent to the collapsed building, 2625 Bedford Ave. According to city records, the buildings department had issued a violation to a demolition contractor in April because inspectors said the building at that site had been demolished earlier in the year despite a city order to stop all demolition work. That violation is now listed as resolved, and the violation notice does not state why the city issued a stop work order in the first place.

City records showed there had recently been construction work happening at that vacant address since the prior demolition. It was unclear if that work had anything to do with Wednesday's collapse.

Glenn Corbett, an associate professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told CBS News New York it appears there was excavation going on next to the collapsed building.

"When that happens at a construction site, when you're actually digging down very deep into the ground next to an existing building, that can often present a lot of precarious problems of destabilizing an existing building, and if proper precautions aren't taken, sometimes this is what happens," he said.

Stay with CBS News New York for the latest on this developing story.

Hannah Kliger, Naveen Dhaliwal and Tim McNicholas contributed to this report.