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A Frantic Search for Survivors in the Brooklyn Building Collapse

At one moment, an apartment building was standing. At another, it had tumbled into a hole. Ruin, and death, followed.

Nov. 12, 2026Updated 2:43 p.m. ET

Devastation arrived Wednesday afternoon on a Brooklyn street. A construction crew had dug a deep hole, and, suddenly, an apartment building next to it tumbled in.

The body of one person was found soon after, and as the hours passed, the death toll rose. On Thursday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that eight people had been killed, including two children, and 18 had been injured.

Hundreds of firefighters and emergency workers scoured a large pile of rubble overnight and into the morning as they sought to rescue victims at the site, in the Flatbush neighborhood. Relatives and friends of the missing stood nearby, bleary-eyed and awaiting news. One woman sobbed as strangers tried to console her. She was later told her husband, a construction worker, was among the dead.

Dozens of police vehicles, ambulances and fire trucks bathed the area in red and blue light late into the night. Canine units, drones and helicopters swarmed the site with teams of firefighters wielding axes and pickaxes. Specialized vehicles and bulldozers combed through the wreckage as the frantic rescue operation continued.

Ana Ley is a Times reporter covering immigration in New York City.

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