NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- Witnesses described a harrowing scene in Hell's Kitchen on Wednesday as a burning crane broke into pieces, swiped a residential building and rained debris onto the street below.
"I saw it go down past my window," said hairdresser Eldridge Smith, who noticed the crane boom plummet past his apartment on the 27th floor of a building directly across the street from the partially built luxury high-rise where the crane caught fire.
He said his building shook and he went to the roof with his camera to get a better look at the chaos unfolding at W. 41st Street and 10th Avenue.
"When I saw the roof of my building, I was like there's no way in the world this crane did that much damage to our building," he said. "All the glass, debris. It's mangled like Godzilla just took it and crushed it in his hands."
Smith said he could "feel the flames" from the roof as a plume of smoke rose overhead.
He was relieved there were no serious injuries on the street below.
"The front barrier of our building is all shattered," he said. "If somebody was sitting there having breakfast, they'd be dead by now."
Elon Levine was walking his dog when the crane arm plunged around 500 feet onto 10th Avenue.
"It was right in the path of where I usually take her," Levine said. "We saw it coming down, we saw it hit the building, and there was just a huge explosion."
Levine described a "deafening" sound and then debris flying all over the place. "It was a wild scene."
Dozens of residents in neighboring buildings were ordered to vacate and were still waiting on the street hours later.
Among them was Morgan Kang, who was still in her pajamas after running out of her fifth-floor apartment across from the construction site, fearing what may happen next.
"It felt like an earthquake, it sounded like an explosion," she said. "It shook the apartment."
Alex Lee also lives across the street. He described a "very loud" sound that woke him out of bed.
"You know, I'm very close to Lincoln Tunnel," Lee said. "It's really noisy every day, right? But today's so loud."
Video shot by Lee shows flames and smoke pouring from the crane and the crane boom in pieces beside the construction site.
Luis Rodriguez felt his whole building shake and evacuated down 41 flights of stairs with his Siberian Husky, Dakota. "I was so in shock," he said.
Several construction workers were on different floors of the building when the fire broke out.
A carpenter who was badly shaken by the incident and didn't want to be named said he and other hardhats "just decided to get out of there."
"I say my prayers every morning, and now I see why," he said.
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