NEW YORK (AP) — One man’s pregnant wife was pulled alive from the rubble, while two of his roommates perished.
asserted
two → pull → roommates
A woman living next door woke from a nap to bright daylight flooding her bedroom because her apartment wall was suddenly gone.
asserted
wall → live → bedroom
Survivors of the Brooklyn apartment building collapse that killed eight people wept as they recounted their terror and grief during a news conference Friday.
New York officials, from building inspectors to prosecutors, say they’re investigating what caused the three-story building to come crashing down as workers were digging at an adjacent construction site.
asserted
workers → kill → site
Those who lost family, neighbors and their homes demanded answers.
“As they’re taking me, evacuating me from the building, I could see my neighbors coming out on stretchers,” said Ciahola Lawrence, whose apartment building next to the one that collapsed had a shared wall ripped away, exposing an abyss of dust and debris below.
uncertain
wall → lose → dust
“We didn’t deserve this,” said Lawrence, who sobbed in her husband’s arms as she spoke with reporters.
asserted
she → deserve → reporters
Among the dead were two children, ages 9 and 10, according to city officials.
uncertain
children → accord → officials
Another 18 people were injured, including four firefighters.
asserted
people → injure → firefighters
‘I no longer knew where I am’
asserted
I → know → ?
Mamadou Mouctar Balde stepped out to buy groceries Wednesday, leaving his pregnant wife and two roommates, 31-year-old Mamadou N’Diaye and 23-year-old Mamadou Barry, at home.
asserted
Balde → step → home
Barry was cooking and N’Diaye was sleeping on the couch, he said.
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he → cook → couch
He returned to find firefighters, police and neighbors gathering outside and assumed there had been a traffic accident.
asserted
firefighters → return → ?
Then a woman told him a building had collapsed.
asserted
building → tell → him
“I didn’t see my wife.
asserted
I → see → wife
I didn’t see my friends,” Balde recalled, a tear streaking his cheek.
asserted
tear → see → cheek
“I no longer knew where I am.”
asserted
I → know → ?
First responders found the bodies of N’Diaye and Barry while combing the wreckage.
asserted
responders → find → wreckage
Balde’s wife, Fatoumata Bah, was pulled alive from the rubble.
asserted
wife → pull → rubble
He said she and their unborn child were doing OK.
asserted
she → say → ?
N’Diaye and Barry were Guinean nationals who came to the U.S. about five years ago from Conakry, the capital of the West African nation.
asserted
who → come → nation
Their uncle said their family is heartbroken.
asserted
family → say → ?
“We ask the city and the Guinean community to stand for us, to have a justice for this tragedy,” he said.
asserted
he → ask → tragedy
New York police identified the others who died as Nicole Daniela Salvada Rodriguez, 9; Juan Daniel Salvada Guzman, 31; Kevin Santiago Reyes Gonzalez, 10; Gabriel Siguencia, 22; Edgar Sapon, 26; and Jose Luis Caguana Cosquillo, 26.
asserted
who → identify → Rodriguez
Mayor says authorities will pursue ‘any evidence of criminality’
asserted
authorities → say → criminality
Ahmed Tigani, commissioner of New York’s Department of Buildings, said Friday that his office is conducting “an exhaustive investigation” of the Brooklyn collapse.
asserted
office → say → collapse
The city has ordered inspections at more than 160 sites in New York that are associated with six entities linked to the construction and demolition site next to the fallen building, Mamdani said, significantly raising an earlier count of sites subject to renewed scrutiny.
“I think it is always an outrage when eight New Yorkers lose their lives, when 18 New Yorkers are hospitalized, and when families are shattered as a result of all of this,” Mamdani said.
asserted
Mamdani → order → this
If investigators uncover “any evidence of criminality,” Mamdani said, “it is one that we follow through to the fullest extent of the law.”
asserted
we → uncover → law
One witness who works across the street said he watched bricks fall minutes before the disaster.
asserted
bricks → work → disaster
A woman in a neighboring building said she and fellow residents blamed vibrations from the construction for cracks that appeared in their apartment walls.
asserted
that → neighbor → walls
Video shows survivor descending stairs suspended over wreckage
Lawrence said the construction work had been a source of constant disruption, producing noises so loud that “you would hear that thumping and movement in your soul.”
A security camera above Lawrence’s door recorded video of her apartment’s shared wall and the building next door collapsing in a clattering rumble and a thick cloud of dust.
asserted
camera → show → dust
Inside her apartment, a closet filled with hanging clothes and bags was exposed to the outside.
asserted
closet → fill → outside
The security video shows Lawrence leaving her damaged home with a firefighter, who held her hand as they descended a stairway overlooking mounds of wreckage below.
asserted
they → show → wreckage
“This feeling is indescribable,” Lawrence said.
asserted
Lawrence → say → ?
Zariah Coleman, who lived in the building next to the one that collapsed, was concerned about her cat.
asserted
that → live → cat
She said Friday that she too had felt the building shake because of the construction.
asserted
building → say → construction
“I just really hope they come and get our cat,” Coleman said in tears.
asserted
Coleman → hope → tears
“He’s hiding from them, and I think he’s scared.”
asserted
he → hide → them
Rescue operations ended Thursday after crews spent more than a day searching for victims beneath debris removed with power saws, pickaxes and an excavator.
asserted
crews → end → saws
Building records show there were four apartments on the upper two floors and a commercial unit on the ground floor of the collapsed building.
asserted
records → show → building
The surrounding blocks along Flatbush Avenue, a busy Brooklyn thoroughfare, are tightly packed with older brick buildings and a few newly built apartment complexes.
asserted
blocks → surround → buildings
A mix of Caribbean and Mexican restaurants reflects the diversity of the neighborhood.
asserted
mix → reflect → neighborhood
…and 11 more, not listed.
The Aporia
