Six people, including two firefighters, have been injured after a crane belonging to the late James F Lomma's New York Crane & Equipment Corp. dangling 45 stories above New York City caught fire Wednesday morning (July 26). The crane partially collapsed onto a nearby high-rise building in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, which sent panicked New Yorkers scrambling for safety.
At least half of the injured were taken to hospital after being hit with debris from the fallen crane. It remained unclear if any of the injured were construction workers.
Luckily, all sustained injuries were minor.
New York mayor Eric Adams later visited the scene and said the city was lucky the incident happened outside its infamous rush hour. "You see the debris on the street, this could have been much worse. We were fortunate that this was not a busy time of day," he added.
What Happened?
New York Fire Department (FDNY) First Deputy Fire Commissioner Joseph Pfeifer told reporters a crane operator was working in the cabin to lift 16 tons of concrete at a 550 Tenth Ave construction site for a 54-story building. A fire then erupted in the engine compartment, which the operator attempted to put out with a fire extinguisher, but to no avail. He had to flee the scene when the blaze spread.
Soon after, the top portion of the crane collapsed, striking a building at 555 Tenth Ave. across the street before crashing to the street below.
The cause of the fire remains unknown.
Aftermath
Once the flames were doused, Pfeifer said over 200 FDNY personnel and a number of New York Police Department (NYPD) officers were deployed at the scene.
The NYPD additionally urged New Yorkers to avoid the area, use alternate routes, and expect traffic in the area.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul later stated the fire and collapse was "a reminder of the incredible challenges" people face in building the city back.
"It's just a reminder of the dangers that so many people are willing to put themselves through and we are the beneficiaries, we the citizens of this great state and city," she added.
This was not the first time cranes were caught in an accident.
Lomma's New York Crane & Equipment Corp. was connected with the deadly collapse of a crane on the Upper East Side in 2008 but he was acquitted of manslaughter and three other charges after two workers were killed when a bearing cracked on a construction project, causing the heavy machinery to collapse.