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Two ironworkers lacking even the most basic safety equipment died yesterday after a horrific 65-foot plunge down the elevator shaft at an Upper West Side building site, authorities said.
The men were seven stories up in the project at 150 West 83rd St. when the beam on which they were working gave way at around 10:35 a.m., dropping them into an under-construction shaft.
“We have no evidence in detail that gives us assurance that there were safety measures in place,” said Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri.
Such precautions could have included a harness attached to a lifeline, a netting system or a platform over the elevator shaft that would have kept the men from falling into it, LiMandri said.
The victims’ colleagues helplessly looked on as EMTs tried to save them.
“They were stunned, like you heard your best friend just died — they had that kind of facial expression,” said Justin Goodman, who works at a car-rental office across from the building site.
“In the process of the EMTs trying to revive [one worker], they said he was having a heart attack,” said witness Anthony Alvarado, 24.
Probers were still trying to determine last night why the beam holding the men collapsed.
Brett McEnroe, 49, from upstate Dover Plains, was declared dead at Roosevelt Hospital, and Roy Powell, 51, from New Paltz, died at St. Luke’s Hospital. Two others on the four-man crew working to install steel beams were not hurt.
Work was ordered stopped on the project, and LiMandri said he expected that the Buildings Department would issue a series of violations against the contractors.
Midtown-based Redeemer Presbyterian Church is erecting a building on the site, which was issued violations Sunday and last summer, records show.
Those earlier violations “do not relate” to yesterday’s accident, LiMandri said.
FJ Sciame Construction, the lead contractor on the project, said it is “fully cooperating” with investigators. The two men killed are believed to have worked for a subcontractor, Cross Country Erectors, which could not be reached yesterday.