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Residents return to site of crane collapse

Crews examined the wreckage at a Manhattan building Sunday that was damaged in a deadly crane collapse, as displaced residents waited to see when they could get inside.
Friday's crane accident was the second deadly one in 2 1/2 months in New York City, which is in the midst a building boom.
Friday's crane accident was the second deadly one in 2 1/2 months in New York City, which is in the midst a building boom. MSNBC
/ Source: The Associated Press

Crews examined the wreckage at a Manhattan building Sunday that was damaged in a deadly crane collapse, as displaced residents waited to see when they could get inside.

Gina and Larry Bliss and their two daughters, who live in the damaged building, had been told they could go in Sunday morning to check on their belongings.

But when they got to the police barricade surrounding the accident scene, where two men were killed and another injured on Friday, they were told to return later.

The family moved in a week before the crane hit the Upper East Side building and has no plans to leave.

"As long as the building's safe, we're going back," Gina Bliss said. "We love the area."

The collapse happened when the cab of a 200-foot crane popped off its mast and scraped the balconies off the corner of an apartment building across the street.

A cherry picker hoisted workers onto the damaged building's top floor Sunday to survey the wreckage. The Department of Buildings said a forensic investigation into the collapse had started.

The collapse extended a spike in deadly construction accidents around the city, including a March 15 crane collapse that killed seven people in midtown.

A construction crane