NEW YORK: One man’s pregnant wife was retrieved alive from the rubble, while two of his housemates were killed. A woman next door woke up from a snooze to dazzling daylight entering her bedroom as her apartment wall abruptly disappeared.
Survivors of the Brooklyn apartment block collapse that killed eight people broke down in tears Friday as they recalled their panic and sadness at a news conference. New York officials said they are investigating what caused the three-story building to collapse while workers dug at an adjacent construction site, with investigators ranging from building inspectors to prosecutors.
Mamadou Mouctar Balde went out to get groceries Wednesday, leaving behind his pregnant wife and two housemates, Mamadou N’Diaye, 31, and Mamadou Barry, 23. Barry was cooking and N’Diaye was sleeping on the couch, he continued, in French.
He came back to find firefighters, police, and neighbours gathered outside, and he concluded there may have been a car accident. Then a woman told him a building had fallen in. I did not see my wife. “I didn’t see my friends,” Balde said, a tear rolling down his cheek. “I don’t even know where I am anymore.
First responders recovered the bodies of N’Diaye and Barry at the crash site. Balde’s wife, Fatoumata Bah, was hauled out alive from the rubble after being trapped for 2 1/2 hours under a hill of wood and brick. Balde said Bah was gravely hurt, but she and her unborn child are OK.
N’Diaye and Barry are cousins who moved to the United States from Conakry, Guinea’s capital, about five years ago. “His family is devastated,” their uncle remarked. We call on the city and the Guinean community to stand up for us, to have a justice for this tragedy,” he said.
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