FDNY battling heavy rain in Brooklyn collapse rescue operation

We want to turn our attention to the tragedy in Brooklyn and go straight to our own Linda Schmidt, Fox 5 News reporter and anchor who is on the scene with the latest about this horrific tragedy. Linda, thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, absolutely there Lise. You know what, because the activity is still going on live right now behind us, so I'm going to step out of view here so that Roy can go ahead and push in. You can still see they've got the major equipment out here and they are digging and removing large pieces of debris from that mountain of debris. from the deadly collapse yesterday, so this has been ongoing since four o'clock yesterday afternoon. I mean, we're coming up on 24 hours already. And then Lisa, we do have some video that we shot just a short time ago. The mayor held a press conference that happened about 12:15 this afternoon. The fire commissioner was there, as well as the FDNY's chief of department, John Esposito. The Department of Buildings also here. And so in that news conference, the mayor announced that eight people, so far there are eight people who were killed in this collapse. Six of the eight are adults. Of those six, some of them are construction workers. There were also two children who were killed. And of those eight who died. Some died here on the scene, and some died after being transported to hospitals. There are 18 others who are injured, including four firefighters. The four firefighters have minor injuries. Of the 18, one person the mayor said they believe remains in critical condition. But the work that is going on out here today, Lisa, I mean, you guys were just talking about it. The weather, it's like a nor'easter out here today. It has been raining sheets, sheets of rain. And that started at about 11:30 this morning. I mean, everybody out here is drenched. Your shoes, your clothes, I mean, every single piece of your clothing is drenched. So you can imagine what it's like for the first responders out here. uh... having to be out in this and these elements and you know uh... the fire commissioner on Good Day New York this morning was talking about even though the weather is going to be awful today and we were going to have this driving rain that the search and rescue effort would continue nonetheless they were not going to stop because it was paramount trying to find if there were more victims who could possibly still be alive under that rubble But she did talk about how the challenge of it and how difficult it is. Because the moment you know, Lisa, you got a pile of dirt, that gets wet. It turns into heavy, thick mud. So then it makes things even more difficult. But we do have some sound from both the fire commissioner and the mayor. I'm going to have you toss to that in just a moment. But another thing that the mayor did say is that the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office is now involved with this case, looking into the possibility, and I want to stress here, possibility of criminality that could be involved here. So the mayor said that he is incredibly disturbed by what's happened here. And he also said that all of the entities that are involved with this construction site, there are five of them. Those five entities are also involved with 100 other construction sites around the city. Wow. So he addressed that issue. I know, amazing, right? It is incredible. So he addressed that issue, and it really is incredible. So he addressed that issue, and the fire commissioner also spoke. So let's go ahead and listen to that sound. And we will be here until we are 100% sure there are no more people trapped. To be clear, we have not shifted from rescue to recovery. We are still in the search and rescue phase. We have moved into a general debris removal. The Department of Buildings has identified five different entities associated with the construction site. Those five entities are associated with a hundred other sites across the city. The Department of Buildings is commencing sweeps of those sites to ensure that if there is anything New Yorkers need to be worried about, that we are on the scene and we are doing something Okay, so there you have it, Lisa, him talking about the five entities involved with this construction site, involved with 100 other construction sites throughout the city. So they are sweeping those locations right now. Go ahead, Lisa. Linda, I mean, just looking at it, and let's let people know, this is Bedford and Flatbush Avenue? Is that the location that you're at? Yeah, we're at the corner, yeah, of Flatbush and Bedford Avenue. That's right. And I mean, looking at that scene that you just showed us, it just, how many times we walk by scenes like that, you know, with the construction, existing buildings right there and next to it. But the death toll, that's just a staggering number of people that they're in their apartments and then all of a sudden something, this just collapses. It's incredible. Right. It really is incredible. You know, we just spoke with a couple of engineers, too, yesterday and last night, Lisa, and the engineers were telling us, you know, these buildings, and you and I know this, I mean, because we've been around forever, and throughout the five boroughs, there are tens of thousands of these types of buildings that approach 100 years old or even older, where the exterior is brick, the interior, wooden beams, and so these buildings, There is some type of destabilization, they can come down. Now, it does not happen often, but it does happen, and that's what happened here yesterday. So, one of the primary things that they are looking at, they are looking to see if the construction crews, the contractors, and others... Properly shored up the soil against the building that came crashing down, because you also have to look at the type, yeah, you also have to look at the type of soil, and again, I'm just reiterating what engineers were telling me yesterday. You have to look at the type of soil that you're using, and some of that reinforcement is wood, like what they use to shore up is wood, and sometimes it also includes steel. So we don't know exactly what was used here, how much it was used. of it was used, how often inspectors came out to make sure that everything was shored up and reinforced properly. We don't know that stuff, but that information will be coming out most likely in the next week to two weeks because this is an intense investigation. At a high fever pitch to get this information. And Linda, sometimes, as you know, it's a big story for a couple of days, and then these investigations don't seem to really produce fast results or whatever. Did you get the sense from today and what's happening that they really are going to take a serious look at this, given all these buildings that this company or these entities are involved with? Absolutely. The mayor was emphatic about that and he said that they are sweeping, the DOB is sweeping these 100 other locations as we speak, which means that it started even before that news conference at 1215 today. They probably started that early this morning because they would have those records by late last night. It's not hard for the DOB to get those records. You know, you just plug in the information of the five entities. Whoever those people are, or whatever those companies are, you plug them into your database and the information comes right up. And the DOB has all of those records, so they probably started that sweep last night and the mayor announcing it today at 12.15. But this is going to be one of those stories, Lisa, that does not go away. You know, the cameras might not be here every single day, but there is going to be a major spotlight on this story for weeks and months to come. Because if something was done, if something was not up to code, Then the city, you know, is going to be looking at that. And the mere fact, Lisa, that they already brought in the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, and it's less than 24 hours after this happened, you know, that speaks volumes about where they think this may go. And especially when, you know, you talk about just in general, not just this particular company or group of companies, but, you know, you look at Brooklyn, how many of these brand new high-rise buildings that they're under construction. Right next to these older walk-up apartment buildings, the Bronx, look what we've seen happen in the Bronx. Upper Manhattan, Lower East Side. I mean, this is something that's happened before, so we'll be following that closely. Linda, thank you to you and your crew for giving us that report in the pouring rain out there and giving us the live pictures to really get a sense of just how devastating this is. And, of course, our hearts and thoughts and prayers go out to the victims' families and to those people who are struggling with injuries from this devastating accident. We're going to get an update on that in just a moment. Thank you so much. Linda Schmid, our Fox 5 News reporter and anchor on the scene. Of that deadly building collapse in Brooklyn, we're going to take a short break.