SOHO?Three emails received in the past five minutes alert us to an incident at the Trump Soho site: "A giant thing of cement just fell off the trump building and hit the side of our building (right next to the construction site on spring st)." Another: "Just saw an accident at the Trump Soho. They were pouring concrete
when something gave way, sending concrete and debris raining down.
Took out a chunk of the NE corner of the top two floors." And one with a bit more drama: "Howdy? my husband works across the street from the trump building on spring and he said "the top corner" of the building just fell off??" We have a correspondent en route to the scene. DEVELOPING... [CurbedWire Inbox]
UPDATE 2:07pm: Another reader report: "A concrete formwork appears to have failed on the highest story being constructed. Wet concrete fell at least 40 stories down to Spring Street, and there appears to be a worker caught in one of the large nets one floor down from the failure. NYPD and FDNY are on the scene en masse."
UPDATE 2:10pm: Our correspondent is there: "Spring Street closed, they're closing Varick too. Crazy scene." Photos from the scene above.
UPDATE 2:11pm: It appears this was a fatal accident. Writes a witness: "There is now a sheet covering what appears to be a body on about the second floor of the building." Gothamist is also reporting one fatality.
UPDATE 2:12pm: A Curbed correspondent sends the above photo of the view from west side of Varick Street, looking east across Spring Street, just before Varick was closed to traffic. The arrow estimates one probable path of falling debris.
UPDATE 2:18pm: A reader sends the above photo, and this note: "This is so scary. Our entire building just shook!"
UPDATE 2:27pm: More from the scene: "a lot of emergency personnel up at the top of the building, seemingly trying to rescue whomever is still up there. 1010wins reports, "A worker was reportedly killed in a scaffold collapse at the Trump SoHo hotel and condos Monday afternoon."
UPDATE 2:35pm: Our correspondent sends the above photo and this report: "Workers struggle to remove a worker apparently caught in the safety netting."
UPDATE 2:46pm: "The guy was brought down in the crane. Doesn't appear to be alive, fdny surrounding him, ems not working with immediacy. Seems to be the question of just getting him out of the bucket." Another tipster sends the photo of that moment above, with this note: "I took these from the 7th floor of the building across the street. The box you see was brought up via the crane, to lower the worker down caught in the net. Once on the ground, the rescue workers stabilized him before rushing him to the ambulance." A larger perspective view of this image has been posted in Curbed's growing collection of photos from the scene.
UPDATE 2:48pm: Grim scene on Spring Street after the worker was lowered.
UPDATE 3:00pm: FDNY report from the comments: "U/D NY| MANHATTAN| *CRANE COLLAPSE WITH FATALITY*| 66-22-0370| 246 SPRING ST, C/S 6TH AVE| CONCRETE LOAD WAS LOST ON THE TOP OF THE BUILDING, NYPD LEVEL 1 MOBILIZATION HAS BEEN CALLED, ONE OTHER INJURED WORKER IS BEING BROUGHT DOWN WITH A CONSTRUCTION BUCKET."
UPDATE 3:10pm: CityRoom has confirmed some facts: "A construction worker was killed this afternoon after a scaffold collapsed at the Trump SoHo hotel and condominium tower under construction in Manhattan, city officials have confirmed. The 46-story building has been a persistent source of controversy, with community groups complaining about its size and proposed use. The authorities said that the worker plunged about 30 feet. The collapse occurred at 1:52 p.m. at the hotel and tower, at 246 Spring Street near Varick Street, west of the heart of SoHo."
UPDATE 3:15pm: Dramatic photo on Flickr showing two construction helmets on the ground. Daily Intel posts a gripping photo of the workers' reaction.
UPDATE 3:24pm: We've just re-edited this thread to keep the photos and text in chronological order. We've got many more newsworthy photos that have arrived from readers and staff, which we'll post momentarily in a new post. Please keep all photos and tips coming to tips@curbed.com.
UPDATE 3:38pm: We're now updating a complete photo gallery here.
UPDATE 3:42pm: Per Daily Intel: "From our reporter on the scene: Paramedic Walter Brown, in describing what happened to a worker trapped in the debris, says 'He was in concrete up to his neck.' Authorities are still unsure if there are more injuries."
UPDATE 3:46pm: A Gothamist reader provides his account of what happened: "I watch that crane all day long and happened to be looking right at it when the accident happened. It was carrying a hopper full of wet cement up to the top floor to presumably be poured into plywood molds for the columns or floor up there. As the hopper just barely passed the top corner of the building, it was brought over the top of the building and it simply opened up and dumped all of it’s contents on that corner. The wet cement rained down, collapsing the top two floors on the corner and a lot of debris went into the safety net."
UPDATE 4:19pm: We've had calls into Bovis and Trump for comment for about an hour now, but no official word as yet.
UPDATE 4:30pm: We're getting slammed with traffic. Apologies for the slow servers.
UPDATE 4:50pm: The Post has a solid sequence of events, and details on the casualty: "A bucket full of wet concrete careened into scaffolding at the Trump SoHo construction site this afternoon... Construction workers and authorities said the bucket, which was being hoisted by a crane near the 41st floor, fell into some scaffolding supporting near the top of the building at about 1:55 p.m. The bucket and the scaffolding then fell onto one nearby worker, a married dad from the Ukraine named Yuri, who plummeted 30 feet to his death. 'Steel [scaffolding] would have been better,' said one worker, a friend of Yuri's named Jimmy. 'It should have been a little stronger for the weight that was on it. There was a lot of concrete above it.'"
UPDATE 4:52pm: Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer issues a statement that blames overly quick construction for the accident: "The accident at the new hotel at 246 Spring Street is another example of the dangerous conditions created by rushed construction in Manhattan. My office did an initial investigation of violations at the site and discovered that there were two Class A violations issued on October 26, 2007. These violations are considered high risk. However, the construction was allowed to continue unchecked." Full statement here.
UPDATE 4:58pm: The Real Estate has fresh reportage from the scene, including this exchange: "We talked to an electrician who was in the Trump SoHo as the accident happened: 'Half the building fell down, that's all I'm going to say.' Were you inside? 'Yes. And I don't want to experience it no more.'"
UPDATE 5:00pm: Thanks to the camerawork of several more alert Curbed readers, we've updated the photo gallery of this afternoon's events.
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