|
A construction firm employee's cigarette likely sparked a blaze that killed
two firefighters in the former Deutsche
Bank building last week, city officials said yesterday.
Cigarette smoking, although forbidden, was "rampant" throughout the building
during a delicate demolition project that involved the participation of three
private contractors and the oversight of several city and state agencies, a New
York City Fire Department spokesman said.
"Smoking was engaged in throughout the building, and particularly on the 17th
floor, where the fire originated," Commissioner
Nicholas Scoppetta said earlier at a news conference, noting that electrical
failure had been ruled out as a possible cause.
The bank building was being dismantled piece by piece after it was showered
with asbestos and other toxins during the collapse of the World
Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001.
In the wake of numerous failures that led up to the fire, Mayor
Bloomberg said the fire department would be overhauling its building
inspections procedures and also announced that three fire department officers
responsible for overseeing the former bank building would be removed from their
commands.
Mr. Scoppetta has ordered all divisions across the city to review their fire
plans, and to visit any large structures that lack a plan. The nine divisions
have also been ordered to inspect the 429 buildings across the city undergoing
construction or demolition, and to pass their reports up to fire department
borough commanders.
"I am not interested in finger-pointing," Mr. Bloomberg said. "I simply want
to fix what is broken."
Two of the officers removed from their commands are chiefs: the commander of
Division 1, Deputy Chief
Richard Fuerch, and the commander of Battalion 1, Battalion
Chief John McDonald.
Captain Peter
Bosco of Engine Company
10 Â-- the firehouse next door to the condemned bank building that was
responsible for inspecting it every 15 days Â-- was also removed and reassigned
to headquarters.
Fire officials disclosed last week that Engine 10 had stopped the regular
inspections when demolition began this year. They said Captain Bosco, who began
working at Engine 10 about a year ago, confirmed that inspections had been
discontinued.
It is unclear who made the decision to stop the inspections, but Chief
McDonald, Captain Bosco's superior, was also removed from his post over the
inspection issue.
Deputy Chief Fuerch was removed because he failed to create a unique pre-fire
plan for the former Deutsche Bank building before the fire broke out there
August 18, officials said.
A battalion chief, William Siegel, had sent Mr. Fuerch memos recommending
that a fire plan be created for the building on three separate occasions in
early 2005, a fire department spokesman said. Mr. Fuerch, after consulting with
officials in the hazardous materials and the high rise building units, decided
to use a generic 61-page high rise fire plan instead, officials said
Conditions in the building quickly made the generic plan moot on the day of
the fire. Stairwells were blocked by plywood, a maze of plastic curtains and
piles of debris disoriented firefighters, exhaust fans meant to keep
contaminated air from escaping the building sucked the fire down to lower
floors, and a broken standpipe forced firefighters to improvise to get water to
their hoses.
Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino died after running out of
air while trying to escape the building. They were buried last week.
Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday the city had enlisted the FBI's
assistance in the investigation into the dismantled standpipe. A section of the
pipe in the basement was discovered to be missing following the fire, and a
valve on the pipe had also been closed.
Pieces of the pipe that adjoined the missing section have been sent to FBI
labs in Quantico, Va., where investigators will try to determine whether someone
took apart the pipe. The alternative is that the pipe blew apart under pressure,
possibly when water met with the closed valve. The FBI is expected to finish its
analysis in about a week, the mayor said.
Besides the fire department, four additional city and state agencies are
involved in investigating the fire, including a criminal investigation by the
Manhattan district attorney's office.
The president of the United Fire Officers Association, John
McDonnell, criticized the removal of the three officers before the
conclusion of the other investigations, suggesting they were being used as
"scapegoats."
"In its rush to judgment, the Fire Department is losing sight of the persons
responsible Â-- people doing the deconstruction and whoever made the decision
that hazard abatement should take precedence over fire safety," Mr. McDonnell
said in a statement.
The officers may eventually face disciplinary procedures, and the mayor said
the fire department could take "other possible actions Â-- both up and down the
chain of command."
Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts)
http://www.nysun.com/article/61392
|
911 investigations 