3, including a child, injured when hair salon floor collapses

ByAYUSHI AGARWAL ABCNews logo
Monday, December 6, 2021

Three people, including a child, were injured after a floor collapsed in a building in the Bronx on Sunday.

"The collapse occurred due to the owner's failure to properly maintain the floor of the hair salon in this approximately 100-year-old building," Andrew Rudansky, press secretary for the New York City Department of Buildings, told ABC News.

The adults were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital and the child was taken to Montefiore Medical Center, where they are all being treated for minor injuries, ABC's New York station WABC reported.

The first floor of the New Klaman Hair Braiding store collapsed into the basement on around 5:45 p.m. local time.

In an email to ABC News, Rudansky said Department of Buildings inspectors were called on scene Sunday evening to "conduct a structural stability inspection of the building following reports of a floor collapse inside of a hair salon."

"It was determined that the floor collapse in the hair salon was an issue isolated to the first floor, and the rest of the building was found to be structurally stable," Rudansky said.

Tenants in the hair salon have been issued a partial vacate order, which doesn't affect the others in the building, he said.

WABC reported that the New York City Fire Department said victims noticed the floor moving and heard "strange noises," which led them to run out of the salon.

The DOB has since issued a violation to the property owner "for their failure to maintain the building."

"We have also ordered them to hire a professional engineer in order to compile an engineering report of the building for our review, and put together plans for repair," Rudansky said.

In a statement to ABC News, FDNY confirmed that all people had been accounted for after the collapse and no one was reported missing. The incident was under control within two hours.

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