Photo Courtesy of NYC Park Advocates
Cory Credell had to be rescued by firefighters after he fell through a floorboard and became lodged between the decrepit building’s basement and first floor.
By Michael V. Cusenza
A Department of Parks and Recreation worker recently had to be rescued by firefighters and hospitalized after falling through the floorboards of a decrepit building in a Bayside park, according to a city parks non-profit group.
Moments after he began sweeping the feces-covered first floor of a rotten edifice in Fort Totten Park on Monday, Oct. 3, Cory Credell, 45, found himself lodged waist-high in a hole in that floor, Geoff Croft of NYC Park Advocates wrote on the organization’s blog, A Walk in the Park. City Fire Department personnel placed a back-board across a beam and were eventually able to extricate Credell, who later blasted Parks for “forcing” him and his colleagues to work in the decaying structure “even after protesting and sending photographic evidence to their supervisors that showed the building was dangerous,” Croft noted.
Credell also said that they were instructed to continue working “despite not having the proper training or equipment – no face ventilators – just a paper mask,” according to Croft.
“We let our supervisors know that the conditions were horrible,” Credell noted. “Then they came to us with an email from the [Parks Department] Health and Safety inspector saying that we could do it.”
Credell went on to say that the edifice is obviously unsafe for several reasons.
“It’s an old building – does it have asbestos? Lead? I know it has mildew. Weeds are growing through the floor,” Credell reported. “The smell is horrible, horrible. We asked about the ventilator masks, but they said this mask is sufficient. We asked about that several times.”
According to Croft, the accident occurred after a Parks official claimed to have inspected the building on Sept. 30 “and gave the workers the go-ahead to clean the toxic building.”
Credell was incredulous.
“She couldn’t have gone into [Building] 429; if she’d went into to 429, as soon as you go in you see the holes in the roof,” he reasoned. “I know she went to building 430. There’s no way she could have gone into 429 and deemed it safe.”
That Parks representative later admitted that, indeed, she had not been in the accident building.
“You wrote that email saying it’s safe – you didn’t give a sh*t. You didn’t care who got hurt, who got killed, nothing,” Credell said, ripping the agency official. “How can you give an order like that when you didn’t even check it out? Can you explain that?”
A Parks spokesperson told The Forum on Wednesday, “Safety is NYC Parks’ first priority. While no major injuries were sustained at Fort Totten, we are reevaluating and reinforcing our safety procedures on this project.”
