Firefighters and officials from the New York City Department of Buildings were at the scene of the three-story commercial building on Lafayette Street around 1 p.m.
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Acting Buildings Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik said that the site was fully permitted, but the Department of Buildings issued five safety-related violations to the site in February.
One of the prior violations were related to overloading the work site. Vilenchik said the collapse occurred when the work area was overloaded with debris, causing a collapse of the floor beam.
FDNY Chief of Department John J. Hodgens said that when the wall and its scaffolding collapsed, one worker was trapped by the debris, two fell on top of it, and one additional worker was injured. Firefighters used hand tools to remove the debris.
"Our fire units were here in less than four minutes and they quickly assessed the situation," Hodgens said. "And we were able to dig out the trapped construction worker pretty quickly and get him into the hands of the paramedics."
The worker who was trapped by the debris was rushed to Bellevue Hospital where he would be pronounced dead.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams praised firefighters for the rapid response.
"Just a quick response by FDNY to go up and able to deal with this unfortunate accident," Adams said. "It's a combination of the Department of Buildings that will continue the investigation to determine exactly what happened here."
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