Aug 30, 2007 6:53 pm US/Eastern
Bloomberg Takes Shots At Deutsche Investigation
by Ti-Hua Chang
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
-
-
The vacant Deutsche Bank building near Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan.
Gregg Geller
-
-
The Deutsche Bank skyscraper burns on Aug. 18, 2007.
Nicholas Roberts/AFP/Getty Images
-
-
New York Fire Department vehicles pack the streets near the Deutsche Bank skyscraper as it burned in Lower Manhattan on Aug. 18, 2007.
Nicholas Roberts/AFP/Getty Images
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the latest of the many who are asking important questions in the deadly Deutsche Bank building fire. The mayor wants to know what top fire officials knew before the fire, and why major problems slipped through the cracks.
More heads could be on the chopping block following the tragedy that left two firefighters dead.
"If you're responsible to do something under the regulations and you don't do it, you're responsible and you will be removed," Bloomberg said Thursday.
Sources tell CBS 2 that several fire battalion chiefs were in the building a number of times earlier this year as part of the search for human remains.
"They saw the kind of conditions that were in that building and as far as I can tell, so far none of them brought it to anybody's attention," Bloomberg said.
As the investigations into the FDNY's actions continue, CBS 2 has learned that William Siegel, the battalion chief at the time who wrote the smoking gun memo demanding weekly inspections of the building -- the memo that led to three officers being relieved of their commands this week -- has been promoted twice since and is now a top commander under Commissioner Nicholas Scopetta.
CBS 2's Political Reporter Marcia Kramer spoke with Jack McDonnell, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, and asked him if he thought Siegel would have some responsibility to find out what was going on.
"If in fact his memo was never adequately answered when he was a battalion chief, I would think so," McDonnell said.
He adds that he thinks there is more evidence the three men relieved of their command are being used as scapegoats.
"People down at the fire department headquarters had to be aware of the existing circumstances at the Deutsche Bank building and not blame everything on the individual fire officers that were disciplined last Monday," McDonnell said.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg says the investigation is far from over. "We're investigating to see if people above and below are involved and other agencies as well," he says.
CBS 2's Kramer called Siegel at FDNY headquarters to ask him if he was satisfied with the attention his memo got from higher-ups. He said he was not permitted to speak to the press.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
WCBSTV.com's 9/11 Special Report
Slideshow: The World Trade Center Remembered
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments