Manhattan Crane Collapse

The vacant space between these two buildings, where the tower of a massive crane juts out from, was a five story residential building until approximately 2:20 pm today. The 15-story crane, working on a building on East 51st Street and 2nd Avenue, also demolished a restaurant in the bottom of the building that was ironically named Fubar. Although the pub was closed at the time, an employee is feared to have been in the restaurant at the time. Here is video from the scene:



At 5:50 p.m., one man was recovered from the rubble alive and taken to a local hospital. So far, officials have reported at least 10 people injured, three critically. The rescue effort was focused on a woman who was said to be in Fubar when the town house above was flattened by the collapsing crane. Rescue dogs, thermal-imaging cameras, and listening devices are all being used in the recovery effort. Firefighters will be working through the night.

The owner of the crane, New York Cranes, was implicated in another crane accident from October 2006 wherein an 800-pound chunk of crane fell on a New York City cab, almost killing the driver and h is passenger. The crane fell on the right side of the vehicle; fortunately for the two occupants, both were on the left side.