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Posted on 11/14/2026 10:55:04 AM PST by Drew68
The people who died in the Flatbush building collapse came from opposite ends of the world. But their loved ones said they shared the same hope: to make a new life in New York City.
“We have no words,” Juan Carlos Zabala said of his lost family. “They were following the American dream.”
His cousin, Juan Daniel Sabala, 31, had a 9-year-old daughter, Nicole. Both died in the wreckage. Another cousin of the same family, 10-year-old Kevin Santiago Reyes Gonzalez, was also found dead.
The collapse killed five other New Yorkers and injured 18 more in what is among the worst residential building collapses in recent city history. Zabala — speaking to Gothamist from Spain — said Friday that his cousin’s wife was still hospitalized and receiving intensive care with the couple’s 3-year-old daughter. Many others were also waiting for updates from their surviving family and friends.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin read the names of the dead, beginning with Sabala and his daughter, during a news conference Friday at a shelter for the displaced.
“They were cousins, they were roommates, they were sons, they were daughters, they were children,” Menin said. “They were Juan Sabala and Gabriel Siguencia, and two cousins who lived together, Mamadou Ndiaye and Mamadou Barry. They were Nicole Sabala and Kevin Reyes, another set of young cousins. They were Edgar Sapon, a construction worker who leaves a wife and 6-year-old son. They were José Caguana, who would pick up his 4-year-old son from preschool, and his wife is expecting a second child soon.”
Zabala said the family had arrived in the country three or four years ago, and Sabala had been working for a cleaning company. But the last time they spoke, Zabala said, his cousin sounded anxious.
“Everything with ICE was really bothering them,” he said. “So they stayed shut inside, from work to home and home to work because they were afraid of being deported.”
The family was home on Wednesday because it was Veterans Day, Zabala said. He had been planning to come visit in December — but now was left processing what had become of his relatives.
“I have a lot of nostalgia and a lot of sadness … because I am also in another country that’s not mine,” he said. “We came with a dream, hoping for a better life. And at the end, we don’t know what will happen to us.”
Ndiaye and Barry shared their apartment with a married couple, Mamadou Mouctar Balde and his wife, Fatoumata Binta Bah. She is six months pregnant and was pulled from the rubble by emergency workers. A widely shared picture of the rescue by AP Photographer Ryan Murphy shows her lying on a stretcher, flanked by firefighters, her skin caked with white dust.
She remains hospitalized with serious injuries, according to Councilmember Farah Louis, but she and her baby survived.
Balde, speaking in French, said he’d left the apartment to buy groceries shortly before the building collapsed. When he came back, emergency services and the Red Cross were already there. He thought there’d been a traffic accident until a woman told him the building had come down.
“When she told me there had been a collapse, I didn’t know where I was anymore, because I know our building borders that site,” Balde said. He said he told the woman, “My wife is inside, my friends are inside.”
Two of the dead, Gabriel Ariolfo Siguencia Yupa and José Luis Caguana Cosquillo, were construction workers from Ecuador. Caguana Cosquillo’s wife is set to give birth this weekend, said Winston Sanchez, who spoke on behalf of the men’s families.
“It is a sad day because it not only collapsed the building, it collapsed the lives of many relatives, brothers, fathers,” Sanchez said.
Investigations into what led to the collapse are underway. Attorney General Letitia James said she was standing ready to help however she can.
“The families in this community deserve answers about what led to this collapse,” James said.
Louis, who at one point struggled to hold back tears, went further:
“Buildings do not simply collapse without systemic failure,” she said, adding that records show “a building with nearly 100 open violations sitting next to an excavation site cited for violating a stop work order.”
The speakers noted that the mayor’s office has set up an emergency relief fund for those affected, and the Flatbush YMCA is collecting gift cards and checks. Other organizations have stepped up to collect donations as well.
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No Americans were hurt by this tragedy.
The owner sounds like just the kind of guy that Mamdani would like.
if these people hadn’t come here illegally, they’d still be alive
“Caguana Cosquillo’s wife is set to give birth this weekend”
Gotta get the Big Prize: the Anchor Baby will legitimize everyone in the gang.
And Pope Jonny sits in his throne and smiles approvingly. One more for the Invasion and takeover.
It’s cha-ching for them now!
The evil taxpayers who forced them to live in a dangerous building owe them big-time!
Got to wonder why a person wanting to get a start in the US would go to one of the most expensive places you could choose to live, not just in the US in the world.
I dunno...
There's just as good a chance that they'd have perished in a building collapse back in the Third World s**tholes they came here from.
Mr. Olufemi Falade may have critics of his building but it was the neighboring property owner whose crew collapsed the building.
Let's see the New York Post run the same hit piece on that landowner.
My favorite part is they're trying to blame ICE.
I figured by all the names they were all illegals. I saw one post on X in response to the names listed “Does any AMERICAN still live in NY” answer is NO
This is what 25 years of RAT rule in NY City gives you. Rudy Giuliani was the last Republican to hold the office of Mayor. Michael Bloomberg was a life-long RAT when the NY State Republican Committee sold the Mayor’s seat to him in 2001.
👍Bears repeating!!
Yeah well guess what if they were NOT here illegally they wouldnt have to worry about leaving their homes
Sanctuary City and State. RATS run both, and hand out money like candy to people that don't work for it.
If they’re here illegally, deport them to a place where they don’t have to worry about a building cave in. Send them back home where they came from.
The Flatbush Avenue building had 98 open violations with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development before it collapsed, including violations for a leaky roof, defective doors, bedbug infestations and exposed wiring, according to HPD records.
He bought the property in 1999 at the end of David Dinkins' Mayorship. Besides owning thousands upon thousands of dollars in fines, taxes, and utility bills, people were still allowed to live there, and he was getting rent money from someone, perhaps the City, for the illegals living there.
"The leaky roof violations date as far back as 1976 and continued being issued through earlier this year." The building was already leaking for 23 years before he bought it. It sounds like he didn't make any repairs to the roof during all the time he's owned it.That in itself would have led to severe weakening of the structure.
The next door building was probably the only thing holding it up.
And I want to know if this guy was even an American Citizen.
Someone should add up the welfare, SNAP and medicaid being expended in that one building.
It probably was in the $$ millions
Probably why the person who owned the lot next door, Robert Fischman, who wanted to build something that might actually generate revenue, was ordered to cease demolition work.
"The Nigerian-owned Third World flophouse next door will collapse!"
Don’t come here illegally and a building won’t collapse on you.
Did you see the video where the adults ran off leaving a child behind to get crushed by the collapsing wall?
A wise man once said, "They're not sending their best."
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