A minor cut to a passerby’s head was the worst injury from the dramatic crane collapse in Manhattan, sources said Thursday — with officials calling it a miracle that no one was killed or seriously injured.
Investigators were still probing what caused the 45-story-high crane to burst into flames, sending its 180-boom crashing onto the street below and sparking a mad scramble for cover, leaving a dozen people injured in Hell’s Kitchen Wednesday morning.
“As you see from the debris on the street this could have been much worse,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the site of the collapse Wednesday. “We are extremely fortunate.”
Five construction workers suffered shoulder, leg or back pain from the incident, while two passerby reported dizziness and the third, a 25-year-old man, had “a minor laceration to the head,” sources said.
One firefighter was treated for a minor injury to his arm and leg, another reported being lightheaded, the sources said.
The crane operator at the center of the collapse, Chris Van Duyne, 62, emerged unscathed, according to the sources.
The towering crane was lifting 16 tons of concrete onto the under-construction tower at West 41st Street and Tenth Avenue shortly before 7:30 a.m. when the engine in the cabin burst into flames — sending Van Duyne dashing to safety after he tried in vain to douse the fire.
The boom then collapsed, slamming into a neighboring high-rise before crashing onto Tenth Avenue.
Traffic remained blocked on Thursday, as the shattered boom still sat on the pavement and crews swept and hosed down the area, removing debris.
The city Department of Buildings issued a stop-work order on the 45-foot high-rise in the aftermath of the collapse, and construction was still stalled Thursday as the probe continued.
“There is a stop order,” construction worker told The Post. “There are no workers there today. Everybody went to different locations.
“The [city Department of Buildings] and the fire department are checking out the building.”
The DOB has said that required certificates and licenses were up to date at the site.
An official cause of the blaze has not yet been determined, but sources said it is believed to have been an accident, possibly caused by a hydraulic fluid leak in the machine’s engine compartment.
The Post reported Wednesday that Van Duyne, who was at the crane controls, had his license suspended and was fined $25,000 after a co-worker fell to his death on a construction site in 2008. He declined to comment Wednesday.
The company that owns the crane was founded by a controversial magnate and self-proclaimed “King of Cranes” tied to two fatal construction incidents, records show.
James Lomma, who died in 2019, made headlines when two of his cranes collapsed in 2008, killing a total of nine people within a two-month period. He was later tried on murder and other charges but was acquitted at a bench trial in 2012.
