A 25-year-old construction worker repairing the leaking roof of a Manhattan school building was killed yesterday when a hoist buckled and hurled him nine stories to the ground, officials said.

The man, Michael Stefanak of Borough Park, Brooklyn, was one of a half-dozen construction workers repairing the roof and exterior of a building at West 94th Street and Amsterdam Avenue that houses Middle School 118, Intermediate School 54 and Public School 166.                   

Firefighters and police officers on the scene said Mr. Stefanak was using a portable hoist to pull four bags of tar to the rooftop when the hoist -- essentially a large net attached to a pulley system -- buckled and jerked him forward and off the roof.

Mr. Stefanak fell nine stories to a scaffolding hanging above the street, and then his body rolled off and into a courtyard of the school, said Capt. Leonard Roppa, commander of the 27th Precinct.

The accident occurred about 2:14 P.M. School officials said there were no children inside the building, where earlier in the day more than 70 children had attended a day camp. Stephan Russo,the executive director of Goddard Riverside Community Center, which operates the day camp, said that the children were on a field trip at the time of the accident.                 

Police and fire officials said that Mr. Stefanak was dead when they arrived at the scene. Detective George Negy, a police spokesman, said that firefighters and officers from a police Emergency Service Unit cleared what remained of the hoist from the rooftop and moved the dangling bags of tar into the building through a seventh-floor window.

The authorities also cordoned off part of West 94th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues, evacuating local residents and preventing others from returning to their homes until 5:43 P.M.                  

Captain Roppa said that the Buildings Department was investigating the accident. Paul Wein, a spokesman for the Buildings Department, referred all calls to the School Construction Authority, which is overseeing the repair project.

Jack Deacy, a spokesman for the authority, declined to comment on the possibility of an investigation or of any violations on the property. He said that the $1.2 million project involves repairing the roof, the exterior masonry and the heating system in the 57-year-old, 140,000-square-foot building.

The construction project began in May 1998 and is scheduled to end in December of this year, school officials said.

CraneAccidents.com