Tenants describe Bronx building collapse as ‘disaster from hell’
NEW YORK — When a seven-story Bronx apartment building partially collapsed Monday afternoon, creating a jaw-dropping scene of devastation, some residents were away on vacation, others at work and still others were at home, forced to spring into action to save themselves.
“Let’s go, let’s go, just leave everything,” tenant Sadie Martinez recounted telling her brother before they snatched up her 1-year-old and the family dog. “I was scared for my baby, not me.”
There was no immediate warning the building would crumble, but Martinez recalled hearing a loud noise that afternoon as she was preparing food.
“I heard like a boom, and you know when the wind is hard? I heard that at the same time,” she told the New York Daily News. “I thought it was an earthquake or they were fixing the street.”
Miraculously, no one among the building’s 46 households was killed or seriously injured. A small army of first responders confirmed no one was trapped under the 12-foot pile of rubble at Billingsley Terrace and West Burnside Avenue in Morris Heights.
Still, residents were left Tuesday to cope with trauma and uncertainty about their futures.
Jacqueline Tomlinson was in bed in her sixth-floor apartment when she felt a “big shake.” Moments later, her son, who was outside smoking, called her on the phone.
“He said, ‘Mom, get out, the whole front of the building collapsed,’ ” said Tomlinson, 64. “So I just grabbed my coat and I ran outside and and I haven’t been able to go back in since.”
Another resident feared for the life of a neighbor’s ailing mom.
“My neighbor called me and she was crying frantically,” said tenant Renee Glasford, 48. “She wanted to know where my mom was because she has dementia.”
Fortunately, Glasford’s mother was with her, and the two made their way back home.
“When we got to the neighborhood, it was a disaster from hell,” she said. “I was devastated.”
The building had been flagged for more than 100 building violations, according to city records, with over 25 complaints sent to city agencies over the past month.
Two people suffered minor injuries as they escaped Monday’s carnage.
While harm to humans was mercifully minimal, some tenants still have loved ones in the building: their pets.
“My two cats are inside,” said Ivan Schoop, 32, who lives on the sixth floor with his father and was at work when the building fell.
Tomlinson is worried about her feline, Panda, who is “probably starving.”
“My dog is still trapped in the apartment. There are other people who were able to go get their dogs, but they told us we could not,” said Glasford, who is desperate to get to Sparky.
She added that the pet’s company is especially helpful to her mother with dementia.
The Red Cross says it has provided 153 displaced residents with emergency assistance, including temporary housing and meals. Red Cross workers will be on hand to assist tenants with disaster health services, including mental health, the organization said in a statement.
The tenants are now scattered throughout the city at hotels and relatives’ homes with none of their possessions, missing school and work as the holidays are on the way.
Glasford was put into a hotel in Brooklyn with her mother, sister and 9-year-old son, who wasn’t able to go to school Tuesday.
“They didn’t get us here until late, there’s no way he could have come back up,” she said.
Sadie Martinez said her family is staying with an uncle, but they have none of their possessions and have not heard if or when they will get them back.
The items cover “everything — memories personal papers, Christmas gifts,” she said.
Even with a tough, unknown road ahead, residents feel fortunate that a bad situation didn’t end up being tragic.
“That was one of my biggest things, I was hoping that no one got hurt,” said Glasford. “I’m happy no one got hurt.”
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(New York Daily News staff writer Téa Kvetenadze contributed to this story.)
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