Metro

One construction worker dead, 2 others injured in Harlem building collapse

A worker was crushed to death this morning and two others were injured after a building collapsed in Harlem, authorities said.

The construction workers were demolishing the one-story building at 604-606 West 131 Street near Broadway at 7:51 a.m. when the accident occurred, police said.

The deceased was identified as 69-year-old Juan Ruiz Sr.

His wife, Francisca Ruiz, sobbed uncontrollably at their home in the Bronx, crying out for her husband as relatives wept with her. She wasn’t able to speak as family members held her shaking hands.

“He was a great person and a great father,” Ruiz’s son, Juan Ruiz Jr., said. “He was a man of his family and a man of his work. I am very sad and we are all very sad today.”

The building, which is owned by Columbia University, is part of a plan on the part of the Ivy League school to expand across a section of upper Manhattan.

One shaken worker, holding a safety helmet covered in soot, said the building tumbled even before they began razing it.

‘I don’t know what happened,” said a confused Keith Henry, 54, a machine operator who was inside the building minutes before it fell. “The whole thing was falling and nobody touched it.”

A resident who witnessed the crash from his apartment window said it sounded like an explosion.

“I saw the concrete wall just falling down on the workers,” said Willy Katende, 46. ““Everything just crumbled. Bricks were falling. It sounded like a bomb it came down so fast.”

Katende said construction workers desperately tried freeing their colleagues until emergency crews arrived within minutes.

Rescue crews at the scene of today’s building collapse in Harlem. (David McGlynn)

“We followed all the rules. I’ve worked with these guys for 15 years and there’s never been an accident,” Henry said.

One male worker was pronounced dead, while two others were removed to St. Luke’s Hospital in stable condition, cops said.

The cause of the collapse remains under investigation.

As a result of the accident, officials closed of an area near the demolition site stretching between West 125th and West 132nd streets.