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NEW YORK, April 20 (AP) Crews used a crane to remove cars one by one from the rubble of a New York City parking lot on Wednesday, as building inspectors tried to pinpoint the deadly collapse of the century-old building s reason.
Grim work continues to recover the body of a garage worker presumed dead under tons of concrete and crumpled vehicles.
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“Now we’re transitioning to how we can safely demolish that building,” Emergency Management Commissioner Zack Isker said at a news conference.
It was a delicate operation to remove as many as 90 cars strewn across the structure’s curved top deck and among tons of broken concrete.
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According to the city building department, an initial investigation found that all three floors of the garage were partially or completely collapsed. Part of the rear wall of the garage collapsed and the front facade bulged.
Recovery efforts have been made more difficult by ongoing work that could further destabilize the structure and make it more difficult to retrieve victims, officials said.
Two decades ago, city building inspectors said owners had failed to maintain buildings properly when they found “cracks and defects” in the concrete. According to an update from the Department of Buildings Wednesday afternoon, the most recent inspection conducted in the fall of 2013 revealed no further structural issues.
Starting last year, parking lots in parts of Manhattan must undergo structural inspections and report to the city by the end of 2023, with additional inspections at least every six years. City officials said the garage’s owners have yet to comply.
“We’re looking into what exactly happened here and making sure there’s something we can do to prevent something like this from happening,” Mayor Eric Adams said.
Theories are endless, and officials say they’ll consider all possible explanations — including the possibility that the structural integrity of the old-style parking lot could be compromised by today’s larger, heavier fleet of SUVs.
The mayor said it might be an issue worth looking into.
“We’re living in a new environment where we have to constantly analyze and upgrade everything from weight capacity to how many cars we can hold,” Adams said.
The garage collapsed just blocks from City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge around 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Pace University evacuated adjacent residence halls and academic buildings and canceled all evening classes while the buildings are assessed for safety. Jerry McKinstry, a spokesman for the university, said city inspectors told the school it could resume using the buildings, though the school said it would temporarily hold some classes online and have employees work remotely.
A total of six nearby buildings were under evacuation orders pending inspection, according to city officials.
In 2009, the owners of the garage failed to maintain the building because of cracks and defects in the concrete, the building department said. Officials ordered the owners to hire professional engineers and correct the violations. The owner became compliant in January 2010 and submitted an application to make structural repairs and install 34 car lifts in the building.
In November 2011, a city inspection found the building’s interior to be “in good condition”. But city officials said they never received the required certificates of correction for previous violations, even though the building owner paid all associated fines.
The mayor said the body of the man killed in the collapse was found by a dog-shaped robot deployed by the fire department to search the rubble.
“We didn’t want to send people in. We couldn’t even send a cadaver dog in because that cadaver dog would go in and potentially collapse and hurt someone,” Adams said.
The mayor used the tragedy to defend his decision last week to allow his police department to use robotic canines after a backlash from critics.
“If we didn’t have that robot dog, we’d be putting those firefighters at risk. That’s how we’re going to find people who are still out there,” he said.
Some regulars at the parking facility returned to the building to see if their cars had been retrieved and paid tribute to the fallen workers, who they said were always friendly.
“I see him every morning,” said Ahmed Scott, a frequent visitor to the parking lot. “When I left that morning – the last time we saw each other – we smiled and waved at each other. We knew we’d meet in the afternoon, same place, same time. “
Adam Cohen, who lives in a building near the parking lot, said his family was not allowed to go home. A nearby hotel was also temporarily closed as a precaution.
Cohen showed a photo of the top deck of the parking lot and pointed to his Nissan Pathfinder, which had been engulfed by a huge crack, its tail pointing skyward. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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