Brooklyn building was in 'poor condition' before collapse

Francis Wang joins us live here in studio. Francis, you've been covering this all morning long and also looking into some of the details of the building's history in the past. What have you found so far that has really stood out to you just in terms of this case before we hear from the mayor? Yeah, so Ryan, as we often do with collapses, unfortunately, we look into the building records. Neighbors have also voiced concerns about the construction. You heard Jessica also talking about that in her live shot. And this morning, we actually found a report that was filed with the city in March. It shows that the three-story building that collapsed Already had visible cracks. In fact, the side of the building that faced the construction site next door was rated in poor condition. That is according to a pre-construction survey we found with the Department of Buildings. As for the construction going on, Ryan, we've also learned why the department. ...told crews to stop working, and that was around the same time that pre-construction survey was filed. Now, this doesn't exactly tell us what caused the collapse, but it does raise a lot of questions about what was known about the building's conditions beforehand. So I want you to take a close look at this. This photo, Ryan, this was taken as part of that survey before the construction began next door. The purpose of this survey was to document... The building's nearby's existing conditions, so any changes during construction could be monitored. The report also found cracks on two other sides of the building. Those were rated in fair condition. And here's a better look at just how close those two properties were. The building with the red awning, we should be seeing a Google image here. The building that collapsed had the red awning. It was right next to this construction site. This is what it looks like now. We've learned workers were actually excavating when the collapse happened. And there should be a side-by-side image that really shows you the stark contrast. Here it is, the before and the after. Now, Ryan, the Department of Buildings, they did issue stop work orders in March. We obtained paperwork from the department indicating that there was also a stop work order the following month. For a violation, we have learned that this is because inspectors, they found the demolition of that construction site was already underway without what they called adequate overhead protection for the neighboring properties.