At Least 18 People, Including Children, Displaced After Partial Wall Collapse in Brooklyn

At least 18 people, including children, have been displaced after an adjoining wall partially collapsed in between two buildings in Brooklyn, and there is no word when they’ll be able to return home.

Firefighters say the wall gave in just before 1 p.m. Friday on Grand Street in Williamsburg and forced crews to evacuate three buildings and shut off their utilities.

Shirley Torres, who lives nearby, said she has to wait for officials to check to see if the structure is stable before she can retrieve her clothes. 

The Department of Buildings is looking into both buildings — one of them three stories high, the other four stories — to determine what happened.

Tenants inside the two buildings with the shared interior wall say they have been having problems with the wall for a long time and were talking to their landlord daily because they say it was just a matter of time before it collapsed.

Ashley Mihelich, who lives in one of the buildings, alleges the situation has “gotten scary the last couple of days because it’s gotten drastically worse” due to the drastic fluctuation in temperature over the past few days.

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She says there was a curve in the stairwell wall that allegedly increased over the last few days. Mihelich said the landlord was aware and believes the landlord was trying to do something about it. 

Tenants say they aren’t sure what was taking so long to fix the issue.

News 4 talked to owners of the two buildings who say they have been working on a fix, but have allegedly run into delays with permits to get it done.