On a Wednesday afternoon in Flatbush, Brooklyn, an ordinary apartment shook, opened to daylight, and became a place of loss as the building next door, 1321 Flatbush Avenue, folded into a neighboring construction site. Eight people died and more than sixteen were hurt, and dozens of families were left without a home. Among them was Sheena Coleman, who, on the day she turned thirty-five, chose the ordinary act of picking up her son and then stepped out into a hallway that no longer existed. Now the city and the state are asking who allowed the ground beside a home to be dug and torn open, and th
When a Neighboring Building Fell in Flatbush, a Family Lost More Than Walls, Including Their Cat
Eight people died and more than sixteen were injured when the adjacent building collapsed, and dozens of residents were left without housing.
The hall and the stairway were now open to the air.
Mark
Why does a story about a collapse with eight dead end up turning on a cat?
Mimi
Because it's the part Zariah could still do something about. The deaths are beyond anyone's reach. Issac is a concrete thing she can ask for at a microphone.
Mark
Ms. Coleman says the cat is what she keeps reliving. Is that guilt?
Mimi
She hasn't used that word, but she describes the carrier, the turn, the empty spot, and leaving. That's the moment she returns to.
Luke
Worth being careful there. The article reports what she keeps replaying. It doesn't say she blames herself, so we shouldn't either.
Mark
What do we know about the construction site's role?
Mimi
Residents describe years of banging and noise from a site where a small building was demolished and a foundation dug. That's their experience of living next to it.
Luke
And it's only that. The reporting here doesn't establish a cause for the collapse. Noise complaints aren't a finding. The attorney general is demanding accountability, but no conclusion is reported.
Mark
And the casualty numbers?
Luke
Eight dead is stated plainly. The injured are given only as more than twice that number, and the displaced as dozens. Those are loose figures.
Mimi
Zariah also doubts that the search for Issac was thorough. That's her impression.
Luke
Right, and police only said they're aware and will return him if found. Whether he's alive is unknown.
Il Polso
- A building wall vanished in an instant above a child's bed, leaving a hole where daylight now pours into a family's home.
- Neighbors screamed for people to get out while the hallway and stairway fell open to the street and bodies lay still below.
- Families scrambled through a hotel lobby, a missing cat, and the frightening question of whether the floor would hold.
- New York's attorney general and city officials are demanding accountability, and the investigation will test construction oversight next door.
- The Colemans are safe but unsettled, and whether the search for their cat succeeds and what investigators find remain unresolved.
On a Wednesday afternoon in Flatbush, Brooklyn, an ordinary apartment shook, opened to daylight, and became a place of loss as the building next door, 1321 Flatbush Avenue, folded into a neighboring construction site. Eight people died and more than sixteen were hurt, and dozens of families were left without a home. Among them was Sheena Coleman, who, on the day she turned thirty-five, chose the ordinary act of picking up her son and then stepped out into a hallway that no longer existed. Now the city and the state are asking who allowed the ground beside a home to be dug and torn open, and the answer will say something about how much a neighborhood is able to trust the work done around it.
Sheena Coleman turned 35 on Wednesday and had plans for a night out. That afternoon she was in her second-floor Flatbush apartment, picking things up off the floor with her 6-year-old son, Hakeem. Her 13-year-old daughter, Zariah, was at the park, and their cat, Issac, was in the next room.
Then the building shook. A roar came from the children's bedroom, and dust filled the apartment. There was a huge hole in the wall above the bed where the kids liked to lean while watching TV, and daylight was pouring through where a neighboring building should have stood. Ms. Coleman grabbed Hakeem and stepped into the hallway, but it was gone. She could see the street, hear people screaming to get out, and see neighbors lying motionless below.
The adjacent building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue had collapsed into a construction site. Eight people died, more than sixteen were hurt, and dozens of residents lost their homes. A firefighter took Hakeem from her on the stairs and told her to leave. She went back for Issac, turned to find his carrier, and when she turned around he was gone. She left without him.
Outside, she sent a neighbor to bring Zariah home. The girl arrived to find police and firefighters everywhere and a wall of her building missing. Then she spotted her mother and brother in the street, and her heart steadied. The family now stays in a Brooklyn hotel, and Ms. Coleman speaks of the apartment as home despite its problems, including mice, cockroaches, and constant banging from the work next door.
At a news conference Friday, Attorney General Letitia James and city officials demanded accountability, and the Colemans spoke. Zariah said she hoped someone would find Issac, whom the family had adopted from a Bronx shelter years ago. Police said they would return him if found. The family is grateful to be alive, but the questions of the missing cat and the cause of the collapse remain open.
Sheena Coleman turned 35 on Wednesday, and she had plans for a night out. Around 4 p.m. she was in her second-floor apartment in Flatbush, Brooklyn, picking things up off the floor with her 6-year-old son, Hakeem. Her 13-year-old daughter, Zariah, was at the park on a school holiday. Their cat, Issac, was somewhere in the next room.
Then everything shook. Ms. Coleman heard a roar coming from the children's bedroom, and dust was somehow filling the apartment. She ran in and found a huge hole in the wall right above her daughter's bed, the wall the kids liked to lean against while watching TV. Daylight was coming through it. There was supposed to be a building next door.
She picked up Hakeem, set him down again, and stepped out of her unit to where the hallway should have been. "I could see the street," she recalled in an interview on Friday. "I could hear people screaming, 'Get out! Get out!'" The hall and the stairway to the first floor were open to the air. Below, construction workers in bright vests were racing around. She saw neighbors "laid out," and recognized a woman in only underwear who was not moving. Her son asked her, "Am I going to die?"
The adjacent building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue had collapsed into a neighboring construction site, and the Colemans' attached building was torn open like a dollhouse. Eight people died, and more than twice that many were hurt. Dozens of New Yorkers were left needing somewhere to live.
Ms. Coleman went back inside to a window facing the street, where people below urged her to climb down. She declined. Back in the open hallway, a firefighter came up the stairs beside the void and told her she had to leave because it wasn't safe. He reached for Hakeem, and she handed him over. Issac was still in the apartment. She saw him, turned to find the cat carrier, and when she turned back he was gone. She stepped into the children's bedroom, where the floor felt off balance and she feared it might give way. She left without the cat.
Outside, she found a neighbor and asked him to go to the park for Zariah. Zariah pedaled home hard, thinking of her mother and brother. She arrived to police officers and firefighters everywhere, and one wall of her building missing. She began to cry. Then she saw her mother and brother in the street. "And my heart felt a little better," she said Friday, sitting with her family in a Brooklyn hotel lobby, wearing a donated sweatshirt and still visibly shaken. "I was so depressed," she said. "I've been there for years. This is my home, even though it has some problems." Those problems included mice, which Issac helped with, her mother said, along with cockroaches and the banging from the nearby construction site, where workers had torn down a small building and dug a foundation for a new one.
On Friday, New York Attorney General Letitia James and city officials held a news conference demanding accountability for the collapse, and invited the Colemans to speak. "The first thing I thought about was my cat," Zariah said. "I was going to go get him but I realized I didn't know what I was going to face." The family had adopted Issac from a Bronx shelter about four years ago, and she had named him right away. At the microphones she said she hoped someone would retrieve him: officials had said they searched the house, she said, but she doubted they really had. He was hiding, she thought, and scared of them. Then she broke down and stepped aside.
Police said Saturday that they knew about the missing cat and would return him to the family if he was found. Ms. Coleman, now 35 years and two days old, went back to the hotel with her healthy but unsettled children. She is grateful to have survived. But she keeps replaying the moment in the apartment, looking for the carrier, losing the cat, panicking, and leaving. Whether Issac is found, and what the accountability push turns up about the construction site next door, are the questions still open.
Citazioni salienti
I could see the street. I could hear people screaming, 'Get out! Get out!'— Sheena Coleman, in an interview Friday
The first thing I thought about was my cat.— Zariah Coleman, 13, at Friday's news conference
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