Overview
- Emergency crews evacuated the former Pfizer tower at 235 East 42nd Street and nearby buildings after reports of falling bricks and visible cracks led inspectors to find structural damage.
- City teams found two interior support columns buckled around the 21st and 22nd floors with sagging floors reported up to about the 26th floor.
- Officials established a collapse/frozen zone, closed streets between First and Third avenues from 40th to 45th Streets, and evacuated seven to nine neighboring properties including a school with roughly 400 children.
- About 150 firefighters, building inspectors and structural specialists are on site using drones and movement sensors while engineers prepare shoring plans that will only proceed once detected movement falls to safe levels.
- Investigators are examining the recent renovation work — including an 11‑floor addition above a 22‑story section — and a record of past violations to determine whether those factors played a role, and access will remain restricted until engineers declare the structure stable.