Four die in New York crane collapse

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Emergency workers on Sunday continued searching for victims or survivors of a crane collapse that killed four construction workers and injured 17 others at a four-story townhouse in Manhattan.

Crews used search dogs and heat-sensing cameras as they looked through the rubble, The Associated Press reported.

Three of the injured were in critical condition after Saturday's collapse, authorities said. Five firefighters had minor injuries.

Ten neighborhood residents were among those hurt, three of them critically, when a portion of the crane detached and "completely destroyed" the townhouse, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Saturday.

Dismantling the crane, which remains balanced on a building, will be a risky undertaking, Lt. Gov. David Paterson said just two days before he replaces Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who announced his resignation last week.

"While we would never want these types of tragedies in New York City, this is actually the best-prepared place for it to happen," Paterson said Saturday.

The crane also caused extensive damage to an 18-story residential high-rise across the street from the construction site. Other nearby buildings have been evacuated, officials said. Watch scene of destruction, witness accounts »

John PlaGreco, who owns Fu Bar in the crushed building, told The Associated Press that he feared one of his employees was buried in the rubble.

"Our bar is done," he said. "The crane crashed the whole building. If I wasn't watching a Yankees game, I would've come to work early and gotten killed."

A piece of steel fell and sheared off one of the ties holding the crane in place, causing it to detach and topple, Stephen Kaplan, an owner of Reliance Construction Group told AP.

"It was an absolute freak accident," Kaplan said. "All the piece of steel had to do was fall slightly left or right and nothing would have happened."

Kaplan added that the company had subcontracted the work.

City officials told AP they had issued 13 violations to the site in the past 27 months, a normal amount for a project of that size. Inspectors examined the crane Friday and found nothing wrong with it, according to AP.

State officials inspected the crane Friday and found no violations.

On March 4 a caller told city officials that the upper part of the crane appeared to lack the proper number of ties to the building, AP reported cited City Building Department records. On March 6 a city inspector at the site determined there was no violation, AP reported

The accident occurred at 50th and 51st streets near Second Avenue on Manhattan's east side.

Witnesses reported a strong smell of gas to the AP. E-mail to a friend

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