TOMPKINSVILLE — The city started demolishing an abandoned Staten Island hospital on Wednesday, days after a teen fell to his death inside.
Work to take down the building at 101 Castleton Ave., the former Staten Island Hospital, began after Marco Castillo, 16, of Sunnyside, died after falling seven stories inside the building on Friday, a spokesman for the Department of Buildings said.
The city expects the demolition of the building to take between four to six months, and it'll use a combination of hand and mechanical methods to take it down, the spokesman said.
The demolition was first reported by NY1.
On Friday, Castillo, a student at Curtis High School, was inside the hospital at about 4:40 p.m. when he fell down an elevator shaft, police said.
He suffered head trauma and was taken to Richmond University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
The building was the site of the borough's first volunteer hospital but has been abandoned since 1979, the Staten Island Advance reported.
It's had numerous fires inside and elected officials recently started a push to transform it into an educational complex, the Advance reported.
Since Castillo's death, locals have demanded the city tear down the structure and members of Community Board 1 were gearing up to send a letter to the city to speed up the process at its monthly meeting Tuesday.
