Brooklyn Building Collapse: Death Toll Rises to Eight as the Search Ends and the Mayor Widens the Probe

NEW YORK - The death toll from Wednesday's building collapse in Brooklyn rose to eight on Thursday as firefighters concluded their search of the wreckage, Reuters reported. Six people were found dead in the debris and two more died later; two of the dead were children, and the six adults killed included two construction workers, according to the report. Eighteen people were injured, including four firefighters.

The three-story building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue collapsed just after 4 p.m. Wednesday into the excavation site next door. The Fire Department announced that rescue operations concluded at 3:37 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, USA TODAY reported, closing a search that ran through a second day. USA TODAY's count put the injured at 14 civilians and four firefighters, and city records cited in its report show the building carried a hazardous-violation history reaching back to 1972.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has ordered an investigation into five companies associated with the adjacent construction site, and the probe extends to 100 more sites connected to those same entities, Reuters reported. Excavation work at the neighboring site included rock blasting, according to a September notice in official records cited in the reporting. No finding about what caused the collapse has been announced, and this story claims none: the investigation the mayor ordered is the next step, not a conclusion.

This file updates the station's morning breaking coverage, which carried the Fire Department's count of six dead. The confirmed toll is now eight, the search is over, and the questions move from the rubble to the records - the violation history, the blasting notice, and the hundred other sites now inside the mayor's investigation.