The brick facade of a building in Little Italy fell on Wednesday afternoon.
Photo credit: Dean Moses
Police and fire officials are investigating an accident that caused the facade of a building to collapse in Little Italy Tuesday afternoon.
On January 10 at 2:58 p.m., the FDNY responded to a report of bricks falling from a building at 188 Grand Street. The FDNY reported that the first floor brick facade partially collapsed, leaving a large hole in the building. .
Sources at the scene told amNewYork Metro that renovation work was underway on the first floor of the building and that people were working inside using support beams when something went wrong. . People on the first and second floors of the building were able to get out safely.
“I heard a bang. I looked at the building and people were looking out the windows and people were yelling, ‘Get out, get out of the building.’ Get out of the building! ’ It was scary,” said Marjorie Carrillo, who works near the scene. “It was like an earthquake.”
The building is the former home of Alleva Dairy, which was open for 130 years and was the city’s oldest cheese shop. The store closed last year after falling behind on rent payments due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
FDNY K9 units have completed searching the scene and there are no reports of injuries at this time.
Both the DOB and Con Edison were notified of the situation.