FDNY removes victim’s body from collapsed Manhattan parking garage
Cops and firefighters have finally removed the trapped body of the garage manager who died in the Tuesday afternoon collapse of a Financial District parking deck, fire officials said Thursday.
After more than a day of work, members of the FDNY and NYPD pulled Willis Moore, 59, out from beneath the concrete-and-steel wreckage at 57 Ann St. at around 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to officials.
Once they were clear of the collapse zone, emergency workers turned his body over to the city medical examiner, they added.
The deadly collapse was likely caused by the building’s age, as well as the number of cars parked on its top deck, according to preliminary FDNY reports.
But the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has also opened an official investigation into why the structure fell.
The four-story garage caved in on itself at about 4:10 p.m. Tuesday, swallowing dozens of cars and dropping slabs of concrete from the fourth floor into the cellar.
Moore, a facility manager, was killed. Five other workers were injured, and four needed hospital treatment. Though Moore was found soon after the collapse by a robot dog, it took time to recover his remains because of the instability of the damaged structure.
City records show four open violations against the building’s owners, all of which were related to construction issues.
But it remains unclear if any of the defects or failures that inspectors found contributed to structure’s ruination.
