A group of outraged families of 9/11 victims say the city is about to name its DNA lab building after former Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch, who they claim botched the handling and identification of remains from the terror attacks.
Hirsch, who retired in February, “has consistently supported the Bloomberg administration during a long history of conflict with the wishes of 9/11 family members regarding the unidentified human remains of their loved ones in addition to heading a grossly mismanaged agency,” they said in a statement.
Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches, who lost his firefighter son, Jimmie, in the attacks, said Hirsch “lied” when he told family members that all missing bodies had been “vaporized.”
He said his group had learned on Thursday that the city planned to announce that the state-of-the-art DNA forensic-biology laboratory on East 26th Street would be renamed after Hirsch.
Mayor Bloomberg’s office declined to comment on the families’ complaint.