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Friends Remember Construction Worker Killed in Midtown Building Collapse

By Gwynne Hogan | November 9, 2015 2:55pm
 Friends and co-workers gathered Friday evening in Sunset Park to remember Pedro Bacilio, who was crushed on a midtown construction site. 
Pedro Bacilio's Funeral
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SUNSET PARK — The demoliton worker who was crushed in a Midtown building collapse had returned to work just weeks earlier after recovering from a previous workplace injury, friends said at his funeral service.

Pedro Bacilio, 26, had sliced his foot open at a construction site about a year ago and wasn't able to work for several months during his recovery, friends said.

He had been back on the job for just a few weeks and was hoping to to save up money to build himself a house in his hometown of San Antonio Portezuelo in Puebla, Mexico, and to start a family there, friends said.

"One proposes and God disposes," said Sergio Leon, 25, in Spanish. Leon grew up with Bacilio in San Antonio Portezuelo. "That's how life is."

Bacilo's plans came to an abrupt halt on Oct. 30, just before 10:30 a.m. when the building he was helping to demolish at 25 W. 38th St. crumbled into a V shape, crushing him to death while another worker, Kairo Garcia, 29, was partially buried.

It took more than three hours to dig out Garcia, who survived the collapse.

Both Bacilio and Gomez worked for Northeast Interiors Specialist and authorities are still investigating the cause of the collapse.

The building that used to house the Havana NY restaurant is being torn down to make way for the 175-room boutique Aloft New York Midtown Hotel, by Starwood Hotels, which is expected to open in the fall of 2016.

Morris Moinian's Fortuna Realty Group is the developer behind the project and declined to comment on the incident.

 

At Pedro Bacilio's funeral who was crushed on a midtown construction site.

A video posted by Gwynne Hogan (@fritsyg) on

Though Bacilio had no immediate family in New York City, the funeral service in Sunset Park Friday evening was packed with friends he'd made through work, through the church he attended, the soccer team he played with and dozens who grew up in the same village as him.

"We're here alone, we don't have family," said Obdulia Garcia, 32, who met Bacilio at St. Rosa of Lima, the Catholic church they attended in Kensington. "The church is always there, we are his family."

Bacilio had lived in New York City for seven years, friends said. He came from a very poor family in San Antonio Portezuelo and had moved to the U.S. to try to support them.

He'd stopped drinking three years ago so he could focus on work, friends said. He loved soccer and went to a weekly pickup game with a closeknit group of friends every Sunday, even though he hadn't been able to play for about a year because of the injury to his foot, they said. 

"[He was] a person without a single vice," said Samuel Tzum, 34, in Spanish.

Tzum rented a room to Bacilio in the house he shared with his wife and children in East Flatbush.

"It's hard for me and for the whole family, everyone living in the house."

A traditional Mexican folk band played mournful ballads at the funeral, while friends took turns kneeling in front of Bacilio's casket. A Catholic priest addressed the crowd and deviated from the message of asking those gathered to accept Bacilio's death as part of God's plan.

"This doesn't make God happy, when there are people taking advantage of the most vulnerable," said the priest in Spanish. 

"Pray for all the immigrants, looking for better opportunities, looking for progress...Pray for all the immigrants, that there are stronger laws to protect the most vulnerable."

Fortuna Realty Group declined to comment. The owner of Northeast Specialist Interiors could not be reached for comment.