113th Building Collapse Kills One

A construction worker died and two others were injured when the top floors of a five-story gutted apartment building on W. 113th Street collapsed, trapping the men under debris at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Firefighters pulled the two survivors from the rubble and brought them to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, where they are in stable condition. Burton Joseph, a 33-year-old African immigrant and Brooklyn resident, was dead when the Fire Department arrived at the building at 280 W. 113th St. between Frederick Douglass Boulevard and Seventh Avenue.

The city sold the 10,500 square-foot building at 280 W. 113th St. to the Neighborhood Partnership Housing Development Fund Company for $7 as part of a program to spur the building's renovation as affordable housing.

The Neighborhood Partnership and the South Harlem Development Corporation were in the process of renovating the building when it collapsed on the workmen.

A wall of the building was loose and in danger of falling and the scaffolding protecting the sidewalk was "not adequately maintained," according to Department of Buildings complaint records. Illegal work was being done at the property on the weekends as of Dec. 16, when a complaint was filed with the Department.

The building has also violated city health codes numerous times, according to Department of Housing Preservation and Development records.

The building's owner and the construction company working on the project were not reached for comment by print time.

The deceased construction worker, Joseph was supporting a child, said his cousin Nesta Felix, who visited the scene in the evening. Felix said Joseph's mother had been alerted. "I don't think it's really hit her yet," she said.