Firefighters have ended the search at the Brooklyn building that collapsed into a construction pit on Wednesday, and police have named all eight people who died. Two were children, ages 9 and 10. Eighteen people were hurt, seven of them kids. Now the questions are about the companies working next door, and some of them have a record.
FDNY finished searching late Thursday and turned the site at 1321 Flatbush Ave. over to the Buildings Department and police, ABC7 New York reported. We covered the collapse and the first day of the rescue on Thursday.
Who were the victims of the Flatbush building collapse?
The NYPD released these names Thursday evening: Nicole Daniela Salvada Rodriguez, 9; Kevin Santiago Reyes Gonzalez, 10; Gabriel Siguencia, 22; Barry Mamadou, 23; Jose Luis Caguana Cosquillo, 26; Edgar Sapon, 26; Juan Daniel Salvada Guzman, 31; and Ndiaye Mamadou, 31. Two of the dead were construction workers.
Caguana Cosquillo worked at the site. He leaves a 4-year-old son and a pregnant wife who was due to give birth Friday. “He was an excellent young man,” said Rodrigo Tubón of his soccer club, Club Deportivo La Bahía, which may turn its Saturday championship game into a fundraiser for the family.
What do we know about the companies at the construction site?
The Buildings Department says five companies were working at 2625 Bedford Ave., the lot next door, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani says they’re tied to about 100 sites across the city. The city hasn’t named them. The City Reporter identified two from records and workers:
- Elite Concrete, the excavation company. OSHA cited it in 2023 after a worker fell 12 feet when a steel deck collapsed in Long Island City, and in 2025 after a worker was electrocuted near an ungrounded power line in Jersey City.
- N Tech Design of America, which demolished the one-story building on the lot. The city fined it $10,000 this spring for demolishing without a permit, and inspectors found it kept working after a stop-work order.
The lot belongs to W6 Facility X LLC, owned by Robert Fischman. The city approved a three-story building there, and last month the plans were changed to nine stories. The building that fell, owned by Isolag Realty Corp., had 98 open housing violations, including 21 marked “immediately hazardous.” None of the companies’ leaders commented.
Did the city already say what caused it?
Briefly, then it took it back. Crain’s New York reviewed a Buildings Department document saying unsafe construction work at 2625 Bedford caused the collapse. After Crain’s asked about it, the department withdrew that finding and said the cause “remained under investigation.”
“If there is anyone or any entity operating in this city who is responsible for this, we will hold them accountable,” Mamdani said. The city has started inspecting the other sites tied to the five companies. State Attorney General Letitia James and City Council members planned to meet with families Friday morning at the Flatbush YMCA to demand answers. You can donate to the city’s relief fund at nyc.gov/site/fund by choosing “Emergency Relief Fund.”
The BeezLoop Take
A demolition company that ignored a stop-work order. An excavator with OSHA citations for a fall and an electrocution. A landlord with 21 “immediately hazardous” violations. None of that proves who caused this collapse, but every piece of it was in city records before eight people died.
The city pulling back its own early finding is reasonable if the investigation isn’t done. But it should tell the public why, and it should name all five companies now. People living next to their other 100 sites deserve to know.
The open question: does anyone face criminal charges, or does this end with fines that companies treat as a cost of doing business?
Sources: The City Reporter · ABC7 New York · PIX11 (video)
