Disturbing home-security footage shows the moment a Brooklyn apartment building suddenly collapsed, killing eight people and injuring 18 others.
The six-second video, obtained exclusively by Gothamist and CBS News, was recorded inside the third-floor apartment of resident Anderson Velez at 1321 Flatbush Avenue. Velez lived there with his wife and their two young children, just moments before the building gave way onto an active construction site next door.
When the footage begins, Velez’s 9-year-old son is taking a gallon of milk from the refrigerator while his 2-year-old sibling plays on the floor.
Velez’s wife suddenly opens the living-room door and begins screaming. The older child runs toward her and away from the wall just before it violently collapses.
“That movement, in my opinion, saved his life,” Velez told the local publication in Spanish.
The younger child was not able to escape and was swept beneath the rubble when the wall gave way.
Velez, who was working in the Bronx when the disaster occurred, said his wife called him in a panic as she pleaded with rescue crews to find their two sons in the debris.
Rescuers eventually pulled the 2-year-old from the rubble. He suffered only scrapes to his forehead and legs.
“His ears were full of dirt, his nose, his little mouth, his back — his entire body was covered in dirt,” Velez said of his toddler.
Velez said his wife suffered serious injuries to her ribs, spine and collarbone, while their 9-year-old son remained in intensive care after undergoing surgery.
“I am still in shock,” the displaced resident told Gothamist. “The truth is, I’m trying to be strong for my son, but I feel terrible.”
“Everything was going through my mind. I was thinking about my children, hoping they were OK and that nothing serious had happened to them,” he said. “God heard me because I prayed so much for their health and well-being.”
Velez also told the publication that his family had moved into the building only earlier that month after previously living in a homeless shelter.
Velez and his family are now staying at a Brooklyn hotel provided by the city for residents displaced by the collapse.
Eight people died in the destruction, including two children, ages 9 and 10. Eighteen others were injured.
By Thursday afternoon, the FDNY said its search-and-recovery operation at the site had concluded and confirmed that no additional victims were found.