7 On Your Side investigates building records after explosion causes collapse at NYCHA building

MOTT HAVEN, Bronx (WABC) -- 7 On Your Side Investigates looked into the building records for the Mitchel public housing units after an explosion caused a partial collapse of a high-rise apartment building on Wednesday.

Eyewitness News investigators discovered there had been several problems with the building's boiler.

The explosion happened after testing the boiler on Wednesday morning.

Records show the building has been having boiler problems for at least the past few months.

A work permit was issued last month to fix it.

Before Wednesday's collapse, old inspection pictures show what the brick-covered ventilation shaft used to look like.

The large corner structure wasn't just attached to the building, it was also connected to the boiler room.

City building records show there were "defects found" with the boiler system back in June.

Then, just a few weeks ago, an electrical permit was issued to "install temporary power to a mobile boiler to provide the building with heat and hot water."

The work was ongoing.

Plus, the city issued the building three boiler violations a year ago that haven't been resolved yet for failing to provide documents showing old defects had been fixed.

"There are some open violations but we don't know at this time if they have anything to do with this incident," the DOB commissioner said.

The boiler isn't the only issue.

The NYCHA building also has two active violations for not filing elevator inspection reports and another for not submitting a report about the building's facade last year.

In all, they owe the city $31,000 in fines.

7 On Your Side Investigates reached out to NYCHA for a response to what happened and the past violations and NYCHA said their heat management team was conducting a routine check, like they do every day, before the event happened and the older boiler violations were non-safety related defects, and they do not believe they contributed to the collapse.

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