New York Local News

NEW YORK (CBS) ― The New York City Department of Buildings is investigating the Trump SoHo construction site, following a crane collapse that led to one worker falling to his death on Monday. 

There's a stop work order until the cause is determined.

The incident occurred around 2 p.m. at the building located at 246 Spring St. when the crane, apparently carrying a load of concrete beams, collapsed.

Officials confirmed the worker was pronounced dead on the scene after falling at least 40 stories onto the street. Three others suffered minor injuries.

A large chunk of the top of the building sustained heavy damage from the fallen concrete beams.

Fire officials say the collapse happened when workers were pouring wet concrete onto wooden forms that the crane was loading onto the 42nd floor. That apparently caused the forms to collapse and made the crane go spinning out of control.
 
One of the injured workers, a man named Francesco, got caught up in the netting.

"He was buried in the concrete," construction worker Walter Brown said. "All I seen was that little head moving. That's how I knew he was sombody."

Co-workers scrambled to help secure the injured man to a materials container which was lowered him to the ground.

Officials say the site is now deemed safe and under no other threat for another collapse.

The deceased victim's identity has not yet been released, but other workers at the site identified him by his first name, Yuri.

"Great guy, just came back from vacation. Took a week off, came back, hard worker," said one of the workers on site.

Before Monday's tragedy The Trump SoHo project was hit with 11 Buildings Department violations.

In September, dozens of SoHo residents took to the streets and rallied against Donald Trump and the construction of the building, which is three times the height of many surrounding buildings, after the city had given the project the green light.

Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which led the boycott against the tower, reiterated after Monday's accident the problems the building continues to cause.

"First and foremost, our thoughts are with the victims of this tragedy and their families and loved ones. But this is a tragedy that never should have happened. This building was illegal and never should have been approved by the City," Berman said in a statement. 

"But the City bent over backwards to push it through, and then the developers worked at lightning speed to get the building up while the legal challenge has been making its way through the system. This building was already a monument to greed and hubris; now, sadly, it will be a monument to tragedy as well," he added.

The building is expected to serve as a hotel while also housing residential condominiums. The smallest studio apartment in the building is selling for $1.2 million, while a 10,000 square-foot suite cost an estimated $30 million.

Construction of the building was slated to be completed sometime in 2009, but now will be suspended pending an investigation.

"We immediately worked to remove the debris and make the site safe," said Patricia J. Lancaster, Department of Buildings Commissioner.

"However, this is clearly unacceptable and the rest of the job will be shut down until the manager tells us how they will let work proceed in safe manner."

Stay with wcbstv.com and CBS 2 HD for more on this developing story.

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