LINDEN, NJ — A New Jersey engineering firm has been listed in permits for the support-of-excavation filing in connection with a deadly Brooklyn building collapse on Wednesday, according to Engineering News-Record(ENR).
Records obtained by ENR show that Jieming Wang, a professional engineer with LMW Engineering Group LLC of Linden, is listed as engineer on the support-of-excavation filing permit.
Excavation was permitted to extend 14 feet below grade, according to ENR.
The collapse occurred on Wednesday shortly after 4 p.m. at 1321 Flatbush Ave., between Bedford and Foster Avenues, as the building fell into an open construction site at 2625 Bedford Ave.
At least 17 people were hospitalized with injuries, including four in critical condition, officials said during a news conference.
New York City Fire Department officials said their search and rescue operations would continue into the night. It was unclear whether people might still be trapped.
"This has been an incredibly challenging and fast-moving situation, with precarious wreckage to navigate and dangerous voids beneath the surface," Mayor Zohran Mamdani said. "This type of rescue is exactly what the FDNY trains for."
About 250 firefighters were working the scene, Mamdani said.
At around 6:30 p.m., firefighters pulled a woman — still alive and moving — out of a hole they had dug into the rubble pile, hoisting her up on a stretcher and rushing to a waiting ambulance.
The building that collapsed, a mixed-use structure with apartments sitting atop businesses, had been perched at the edge of a lot where another one-story building had been torn down for a construction project.
The site was being excavated, and the building that fell down filled the construction pit with bricks and wood.
Another building that shared a wall with the collapsed structure remained standing, but its wall was shorn off, exposing the rooms inside, including a bedroom and closets filled with clothing.
LMW Engineering Group did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.
— With reporting by Ainsley Martinez
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