-
Aug 26, 2007 4:50 pm US/Eastern
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
Too Many To Point Fingers At In Deadly Blaze
NEW YORK (AP) ―
The pipe taking water into the tower was broken and no one had inspected it lately. The Fire Department had no plan to fight fire in the condemned building. The contractor had racked up safety violations for accidents that sent debris hurtling from 35 stories.
The building, owned by an agency run by the governor and the mayor, is still standing.
There aren't enough fingers to point at the collection of politicians and state, federal and city agencies that had oversight in the notorious, black-shrouded former Deutsche Bank tower that burned last week, killing two firefighters. In public statements this week, many tried to raise questions about other agencies' conduct, while fire marshals combed the building to find out who or what set the blaze.
So far, one company—John Galt Corp., the subcontractor that was cleaning the building of toxic debris and taking it down—has been removed from the job for safety violations throughout the project, including one that sent a pipe falling 35 stories in May through the roof of a nearby firehouse. A Galt worker was involved in an accident at the building that hurt two more firefighters five days after the fire.
And a New York Post editorial called last week for Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta's resignation for heading a department that failed to inspect the building as often as was required and not planning for a fire at the toxic tower.
But after a week of investigation—and no announced cause—few have escaped blame.
"Everyone looks bad," political strategist Hank Sheinkopf said. "It looks like government has completely screwed up and it looks like no one's responsible or in charge."
It was three years ago that government put itself in charge of the abandoned skyscraper, badly damaged on Sept. 11 when the World Trade Center's south tower collapsed into it. A 15-story gash was opened, toxic debris seeped in and the bank sued insurers and the city to pay to clean it up.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corp., a rebuilding agency with a board jointly appointed by then-Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, bought the tower in 2004 and chose the private contractors to clean it up and take it down. The first contractors either backed out or were replaced after their plans didn't satisfy environmental regulators, or when they raised their prices. The discovery of bones of Sept. 11 victims throughout the building, missed like hundreds of others found this year in and around ground zero, caused more controversy and slowed the tower's removal.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer referred to the delays a day after the fire, saying that if the building had been taken down by now, "clearly this tragedy would not have occurred."
The latest contractor, Galt was ultimately chosen over seven other companies to work under a construction manager, the LMDC and another agency that reports to the governor and mayor, the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center.
Those agencies, as well as half a dozen environmental and labor inspectors were regularly checking the building, but none discovered before the fire that pieces of a standpipe that connects fire hoses and sends water up through the building were lying disconnected in the basement.
Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino died of cardiac arrest caused by smoke inhalation on Aug. 18 when their oxygen tanks ran out after they climbed over 14 stories.
City officials said last week that Beddia's and Graffagnino's department should have inspected the standpipe every 15 days, but hadn't in over a year. The contractors, Bovis Lend Lease and Galt, also promised in a written plan to keep the standpipe in operation.
The Fire Department hadn't written a plan for a fire in the building, which Spitzer said could have been more difficult to fight because of heavy polyurethane coverings in place on several floors still contaminated by debris.
State officials also said that environmental regulators had said that a sprinkler system should not be in place during demolition of the toxic tower, for unclear reasons. An Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman denied such a requirement, and city officials were still trying to determine whether sprinklers were legally required in a building that is being dismantled.
Prosecutors have begun a criminal investigation and the state Attorney General is looking for answers. Bloomberg earlier in the week said of the fire, "there's no reason for anybody to think in terms of criminal charges or anything else" and said the investigation should run its course.
At Beddia's funeral on Friday he adopted a more critical position, calling the firefighter's death "a tragic loss of life that probably never should have happened."
Sheinkopf said he expected requisite investigations, hearings, reports and fingerpointing. "People are still searching for the villain," he said. "It may the contractor, it may be Scoppetta. ... Someone will be fired."
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)