Harrowing new surveillance footage from inside a Brooklyn apartment captured the moment the building crumpled beside an active construction site, killing eight people and injuring 18 others. The video shows the catastrophe reaching one family’s home within seconds.

Gothamist and CBS News exclusively obtained the six second clip from a camera inside resident Anderson Velez’s apartment at 1321 Flatbush Avenue. Velez lived in the third floor apartment with his wife and two young children.

The footage begins with Velez’s son, age 9, retrieving a gallon of milk from the refrigerator. His younger son, age 2, is seen playing on the floor nearby as the ordinary family moment suddenly turns terrifying.

Velez’s wife then opens a door leading to the living room and begins screaming frantically. Her older son responds by running toward his mother and away from the wall just before it dramatically crumbles.

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“That movement, in my opinion, saved his life,” Velez told the local publication in Spanish.

The toddler could not escape before the wall caved in and was swept into the rubble. The video captured the speed of the collapse as debris overtook the area where the child had been playing only moments earlier.

Velez was working in the Bronx when the building collapsed. He said his wife called him in a panic while begging rescue workers to pull their two sons from the pile of rubble.

The younger child was eventually pulled from the debris and sustained scrapes to his forehead and legs. Despite being buried in the destruction, those were the only injuries reported for the toddler.

“His ears were full of dirt, his nose, his little mouth, his back — his entire body was covered in dirt,” Velez said of his toddler.

Other members of the family suffered more severe injuries. Velez said his wife sustained serious injuries to her ribs, spine and collarbone, while his older son remained in the ICU after undergoing surgery.

Velez described the emotional toll as he attempted to remain steady for his injured child. The family was also left displaced after the apartment building collapsed beside the construction site.

“I am still in shock,” Velez told Gothamist. “The truth is, I’m trying to be strong for my son, but I feel terrible.”

He said his thoughts immediately turned to his children and whether they had survived without suffering grave injuries. He also described praying intensely for their health and safety while confronting the terrifying uncertainty.

“Everything was going through my mind. I was thinking about my children, hoping they were OK and that nothing serious had happened to them,” he said. “God heard me because I prayed so much for their health and well-being.”

The family’s displacement came shortly after they had secured the apartment. Velez told the publication that they had moved into the building earlier this month after previously living in a homeless shelter.

Velez and his family are now staying at a Brooklyn hotel offered by the city to people displaced by the tragedy. Their new home was destroyed only weeks after they moved into it.

Eight people were killed in the collapse, including two children who were ages 9 and 10. Another 18 people were injured in the destruction, including members of Velez’s family.

By Thursday afternoon, the FDNY announced that search and recovery operations at the site had concluded. Officials also confirmed that there were no additional victims at the scene after crews completed their work.

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