Brooklyn building collapse kills at least one near construction site

A three-story building partially collapsed around 4 p.m. Wednesday in Flatbush, Brooklyn, killing at least one person and trapping others in rubble, police and fire officials said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The New York Police Department, or NYPD, said the person was pronounced dead at the scene. Emergency medical crews transported victims to Kings County Hospital.

The NYPD said in an account to ABC News that two people were critically injured and five were receiving treatment at the scene. NBC New York reported one person critically injured.

Melissa Orna, 53, heard the collapse while dropping her daughter at a nearby hair salon. "The whole building started shaking, and then it just fell," Orna said, according to The New York Times.

"Everything went down, and everybody was screaming," she said. Orna said she saw emergency workers rescue a woman and someone who appeared to be a construction worker, whom they gave CPR.

The New York City Fire Department, or FDNY, said the building is at 2625 Bedford Avenue, close to its intersection with Flatbush Avenue. The first 911 call arrived at 4:01 p.m.

Several construction workers were on their way to a hospital for treatment, while firefighters tried to account for everyone working at the site.

City building information lists two apartments above a commercial space in the building. The collapse tore away an apartment wall, exposing a staircase, a bed and closets to the air.

The FDNY launched a technical rescue operation, and crews pulled two people from the debris soon after the collapse.

🚨 HAPPENING NOW: FDNY units are currently operating at a building collapse on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.

— FDNY (@FDNY) November 11, 2026

News helicopter footage showed dozens of firefighters looking through the debris, including a group cutting into the wreckage with a saw. Crews cleared bricks by hand and broke through a fallen wall with pickaxes to check for victims beneath it.

Footage from NBC New York's Chopper 4 showed firefighters extracting an injured man and carrying him away on a stretcher. Crews were extricating two people just before 5 p.m., a senior city official told NBC New York.

The cause was not known. The condition of other people rescued from the debris was not immediately clear.

Construction had been underway nearby. The building fell into a large hole at the neighboring construction site, the Times reported. The excavation was at a site where a one-story building had been completely demolished.

Fire officials asked people to stay away from Bedford and Flatbush avenues. New York City's Office of Emergency Management cautioned people about traffic delays and road closures, while the NYPD posted on X asking them to avoid the area.

Inspectors from the city's Department of Buildings were on scene "assisting with recovery operations and conducting structural stability inspections of nearby buildings," the agency wrote on X.

DOB inspectors are on scene at a major building collapse near Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn assisting with recovery operations and conducting structural stability inspections of nearby buildings.

— Department of Buildings (@NYC_Buildings) November 11, 2026

The department is investigating the collapse.