NYU Hospital Fire Caused by Unsafe Construction Site, City Says

MURRAY HILL, NY — The city has issued a violation to Turner Construction Company, the contractor employed by NYU to manage construction at 424 East 34th St. within the NYU Langone Medical Centercomplex, after a massive fire broke out at the building Wednesday. The fire caused minor injuries to one civilian and brought traffic to a halt in the surrounding area. Flames shot from the building's roof for more than an hour, and plumes of black smoke billowing from the east side of Manhattan could be seen across the city.

"Sparks from a worker cutting metal started a fire at the location," a spokesperson from the Department of Buildings (DOB) told Patch.

The DOB spokesman said in an email that a "partial stop work order" was issued at the site, preventing any "hot work (cutting, welding, or other work that could be a fire hazard) on the entire construction site."

In addition, "as a result of the fire," Turner Construction was issued a violation for "failure to safeguard," the DOB said.

The Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) has determined that the cause of Wednesday's fire — a "spark from cutting metal" — was accidental.

Turner Construction is also looking into the cause of the fire, according to Elizabeth Strauss, a company spokeswoman. "Work has not resumed in the area impacted by the fire," she said. "All other areas of the project resumed work [Friday] morning after a full project safety stand-down."

When the fire broke out Wednesday, construction workers ran down into the street and some patients on the north side of Tisch Hospital, facing the construction, were rushed to the south side of the floor. (They have since been located back to their rooms, an NYU spokesperson said.) Alexander Kaufman, a journalist in the building next door, tweeted: "All patient guests were just evacuated to the waiting room, where nurses are running around trying to figure out where to put people."

NYU did not respond to questions about the construction violation. A hospital spokesperson said only: "We’re all clear for work so we’re just moving forward with construction. The building is still on track to open in 2018."

NYU Langone's large-scale expansion and renovation project will add 2.3 million square feet to its facilities.

The latest violation at NYU Langone's ongoing construction site is one of many issued by the DOB in the past year. NYU's various contractors are facing tens of thousands of dollars in fines for hazardous conditions including unsafe elevators, cranes operated with a license, unstable sidewalk sheds, falling hammers, locked emergency exits, loose plywood fencing and more.

Lead photo courtesy of the FDNY