No Permits In Hackensack Scaffold Collapse, Authorities Say

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- A makeshift scaffold outside a three-story Hackensack garden apartment complex collapsed Thursday afternoon, critically injuring two laborers while also sending five others to the hospital, authorities told Daily Voice.

Two victims were seriously injured, authorities said.
Photo Credit: *Werner R. Ennesser*

Fire Dept. photo shows the setup.
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: Fire Capt. Justin Derevyanik*

At the scene on Tracy Place.
Photo Credit: *Werner R. Ennesser*

Tracy Place, Hackensack
Photo Credit: *GoogleMaps*

The makeshift platforms were erected along the side of the building.
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: Hackensack Fire Capt. Justin Derevyanik*

Jerry DeMarco

12/11/2015 8:00 a.m.

The collapse of the jerry-rigged platform sent the victims working on an upper floor 35 feet to the ground just before 3:30 p.m., city Fire Capt. Justin Derevyanik said.

All were taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, he said.

A law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the situation told Daily Voice that the company doing the work didn't have permits. OSHA was among the responders this afternoon, he said.

"We've been watching them all week," a neighbor of the Tracy Place building who requested anonymity told Daily Voice.

"Those scaffolding were being held up by ladders -- it's wasn't even real scaffolding," she said (see photo, above). "Just before my mother asked me how it could support all those people."

The Bergen County Sheriff's Bureau of Criminal Identification collected evidence.

Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates.