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An entire side of a neglected and vacant Brooklyn building collapsed onto a bodega last evening, crushing a woman to death and injuring six others, including a firefighter, police officials said.
The left side of 125-127 Park Ave. in Fort Greene sheared off, revealing the empty apartments inside, and collapsed onto the roof of a mini-market, smashing through the roof.
"Everybody went down on the floor. I heard one girl screaming 'How am I going to get out of here?' I told her 'Don't move, don't move,'" said Yesenia Castillo, 28 of Jamaica, a 10-year employee at the store.
Castillo and others managed to crawl out. She pushed through a plastic window in the front of the store.
"I didn't think, I just got out," she said.
Dozens of firefighters had to carve a pathway through the debris to get to the fatally injured customer inside.
When they finally emerged, they were covered in a fine white powder, a residue of the plaster that fell in thick clouds after the roof was pulverized.
About 7:30 p.m., just before the wall collapsed, life inside the Family Mini Market was prosaic, people who were in the store said.
A man behind the deli busied himself making a sandwich. A customer stood on the other side, waiting for his dinner. Two more customers stood at the cash register waiting to buy some cigarettes. Two women stood behind the register, one of them munching on a dinner of chicken and French fries. In the basement, another employee was retrieving supplies.
Then there was a strange noise.
"I heard a little crack," Castillo said. "I thought it was the lotto machine. It was like someone who had been walking [on the roof], step by step."
Then the scene exploded into chaos.
That cascading sound Castillo had heard was the west wall of the neighboring building falling across the roof.
At first, people in the area thought an explosion had torn through their neighborhood. Some initial calls to 911 reported a bomb. And although it was a building's collapsed wall that did the damage, it was difficult to tell the difference. The inside of the neighborhood store was filled with sections of wood, chunks of brick and other debris. It choked the doorway.
"The store is no more," said FDNY Deputy Chief Michael Marrone.
Neighboring buildings 123 Park Ave. and 54 Cumberland St. had to be evacuated. Buildings Department and fire officials were trying to determine what caused the collapse last night. Residents said the building had been vacant for decades.
According to the Department of Buildings, the collapsed building's owner applied for a partial demolition for a renovation last year. The department approved the application, but the owner never acted on it.
"It's really a shame. We see a good many of these kind of collapses," said Susan Hinkson, Brooklyn Borough Commissioner for the Department of Buildings. "Brooklyn has old infrastructure, and it happens."
Meanwhile last night, firefighters rushed the critically injured woman to Brooklyn Hospital, but it was too late.
Castillo said that before she escaped the devastation, she cried out: "Is anybody there, is anybody there?"
Nobody answered.
Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc
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