By Sonja Sharp and Tom Liddy
DNAinfo Reporters
MANHATTAN — A portion of a Chelsea street collapsed Sunday afternoon, leaving a construction trailer dangling over the void for hours, officials said.
The 20-foot-by-10-foot sinkhole opened up on West 15th Street, near Sixth Avenue just before 12:20 p.m., according to the FDNY.
The construction trailer hovered precariously over the hole and was endangering Con Ed infrastructure, fire officials said.
The utility said that the street had collapsed over a 6-inch low-pressure gas line, but there was no evidence of a leak.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
One neighbor, Ken Sheller, 69, said that water had been pooling under the trailer for a while and that some other residents had called 311.
"There was water pooling under the trailer for a number of months. Now the fire department said they're very concerned because there's a...gas line directly underneath," he said. "They're advising people not to walk down the block."
Bruno Levy, 32, said that he noticed the hole around noon.
"As soon as I got out the firefighters got here," he said. "When you wake up in the morning and see that, you go 'Is that because of the construction they're doing? Is this going to affect my building?"
Others were not as impressed.
"I'm from Jamaica, and I've seen this a lot in Jamaica," said Davaione Curtis, who is working construction for one of the businesses on the block. "Maybe it scares people more in new york because they might not see it as much."
For several hours, firefighters placed beams under the trailer to prevent it from falling into the hole. Around 4 p.m. they were able to roll it onto a flatbed truck and haul it away.
It was not immediately clear what sparked the collapse.
