Bobcat Machine Crashes Through Roof Of Yonkers Business, Minor Injuries Reported
YONKERS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A forklift crashed through the ceiling of a big box store in Westchester, on Wednesday.
As CBS2's Lou Young reported, it happened at a lumber liquidator in Yonkers.
"I thought it was an earthquake. The sound was like 'woooo, wooooo," Ozvaldo Hernandez said.
There was a rumble overhead as the 30 x40-ft section of ceiling and rooftop came crashing down into an occupied store -- the National Wholesale Liquidators in Yonkers -- minutes before noon.
A forklift crashed through a rooftop parking lot under repair. In the store they all remembered the sound before the sudden scramble to safety.
"All I heard was like 'woooo,' really bad noise, and all of a sudden it was coming towards us," Raijah Brown said.
"It was panic. Everybody was screaming. I was thinking, 'oh my goodness, I'm going to die. I need to get out of here," Hernandez recalled.
The driver of the forklift rode the collapse down 30 ft to the floor of the 40,000-SqFt building, and managed to walk away. He was one of five people taken away by ambulance for what are described as non-life-threatening injuries.
"There was an older woman. She couldn't walk, so I helped carry her out; another went into an asthma attack," Imjardt Rodriguez said.
Witnesses said there was lots of water, but emergency responders told CBS2's Young the collapse was not weather related.
"It took out the sprinkler piping so all the sprinkler pipes were just running down into the collapse scene and that's probably what they saw," Assistant Chief Kevin Ford, Yonkers Fire Department explained.
There were 18 employees and perhaps 40 shoppers in the building when it happened. It's believed everyone is accounted for.
"We have no reason to believe there's anyone in this business at this time, but we cannot be 100 percent sure until we remove all the debris, and at this time the building is unstable," Yonkers Police Commissioner, Charles Gardner said.
