-
Aug 29, 2007 8:43 am US/Eastern
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
Exclusive: FDNY Tragedy May Reach Top Brass
Union Official Tells CBS 2 High-Ranking Officials Knew About Deutsche Building's Dangers For Years
by Marcia Kramer
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
On Wednesday night, more than a week after a fire killed two firefighters, members of the community will come face-to-face with the contractor of the Deutsche Bank building.
Meanwhile new information has come to light about when the department really knew about the dangers of the building.
The investigation into the tragic fire that claimed the lives of two firefighters inside the condemned Deutsche Bank building at Ground Zero may soon reach the very top of the FDNY, CBS 2 HD has exclusively learned.
Just how high up will it go?
"It goes all the way to headquarters, all the way to the chief of the department," says Jack McDonnell, a spokesman for the Uniformed Fire Officers Association.
McDonnell says top FDNY officials -- well above the three commanders who were reassigned following the fire -- were very aware of the potential dangers of fighting a fire at that very building.
"We're talking a very high-profile, very dangerous building," McDonnell says.
How did they know? A memo issued by the city last week tells the tale. The memo states that on April 6, 2005, top department brass went to the Deutsche Bank building to familiarize themselves with its dangers.
So whose agency organized the meeting? "It was Chief [Salvatore] Cassano," McDonnell says.
All of this comes as CBS 2 HD has obtained another smoking gun memo urging the creation of a plan to fight fires at the Deutsche Bank building. On November 21, 2005, City Councilman Alan Gerson wrote to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation -- the owner of the Deutsche Bank building -- demanding a fire fighting plan that "would spell out in advance what their normal protocols would be in several of the most likely emergency situations, e.g. fire."
"Two firefighters might have been saved if we had in place a fire response plan," Gerson tells CBS 2 HD. "That this was not done is an unconscionable outrage."
Still, there was no pre-fire plan that was ever developed. In what may be just as bad, according to union officials, there are still no department guidelines for inspecting toxic buildings.
"The fire department at the very highest levels ... failed to establish protocols for the men and women in the field. To lay the blame at the foot-soldier level is just not right," says UFOA attorney Steven Rabinowitz.
A fire department spokesman said the investigation is continuing and added "it will go whereever it goes."
Right now the three men relieved of their commands remain on desk duty. Whether they will be the only officials to take the fall for the tragedy remains to be seen. Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino were killed in the fire and laid to rest last week.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)