The Fire Department ax fell on three senior officers yesterday who were relieved of their commands in the wake of the high-rise inferno that killed two firefighters in a toxic vacant building near Ground Zero.
Smoking by careless constructions workers was listed as the official cause of the tragic Aug. 18 fire in the former Deutsche Bank building, but Mayor Bloomberg yesterday said the department failed two of its best firefighters by not properly inspecting the dangerous building in the months before the blaze.
“We have an obligation to them to reduce those risks whenever possible,” Bloomberg said. “As a city, I think it’s safe to say that we failed to do that.”
That failure led to the deaths of firefighters Joseph Graffagnino and Robert Beddia, who died after they were trapped on the 14th floor and ran out of air while waiting for water to extinguish the flames.
As a result, Deputy Chief Richard Fuerch, Battalion Chief John McDonald and Capt. Peter Bosco were relieved of their commands and reassigned to department headquarters.
“It sounds like they’re circling their wagons,” said Graffagnino’s father, Joseph Sr.
The city yesterday ordered fire inspectors to examine hundreds of buildings under construction or demolition in an effort to avoid future deaths.
Bloomberg said it was “not excusable” that the department failed to properly inspect the building.
After the deadly blaze, investigators learned that the standpipe, designed to carry water to firefighters throughout the building, had recently been cut in the basement – an action that would likely have been discovered if officials had maintained required regular inspections.
Bloomberg yesterday said pieces of the pipe that were later found on the basement floor were sent to an FBI lab as part of the investigation.
Bosco, 48, was in charge of Engine Co. 10, the local firehouse closest to the building. It was responsible for inspecting the building, including the standpipe every two weeks. The standpipe was meant to deliver water to the upper floors.
Department brass have admitted they had no pre-fire plan of attack before sending more than 100 firefighters into the vacant, contaminated building.
But The Post reported that Fuerch, 56, the division commander, was named as the recipient of a memo written more than two years ago by Battalion Chief William Siegel that spelled out a plan for inspections and for fighting a fire in the structure.
“Therefore, we’ve relieved [Fuerch] of his command because we don’t want him to make a similar decision given similar facts later on.”
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta acknowledged yesterday there were “several memos” addressing the issue.
Bloomberg said Engine 10 “abruptly” stopped inspecting the building in 2006 and “we have yet to determine why.”
McDonald, 53, was reassigned because he failed in his job to oversee the engine company, according to Scoppetta.
“There are a lot of specific requirements of battalion chiefs as related to safety,” Scoppetta said, “and that is the context within which he was removed.”
Siegel, after a March 2005 inspection, recommended that in the event of a fire, a three-man advance team check conditions before determining what other units would be required.
The pre-fire plan may have alerted the FDNY to a curious occurrence. Although high-rise fires usually burn upward, officials said this fire did the opposite – sucking flames downward from the 17th floor and putting the base of operations on the 14th floor at risk.
“Most chiefs would conclude, who are the professionals, that that was not the kind of decision that should have been made,” Bloomberg said.
The reassigned officers could not be reached for comment.
Battalion Chief John McDonnell, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, said the reassigned commanders are being scapegoated.
“In its rush to judgment, the Fire Department is losing sight of the persons responsible – the people doing the deconstruction and whoever made the decision that hazard abatement should take precedence over fire safety,” McDonnell said.
Construction crews had already dismantled 14 of the building’s 40 stories when the fire erupted. The painstaking project also involved removing toxic materials including asbestos.
Additional reporting by Leonardo Blair, Steve Dunleavy, Samuel Goldsmith and Erin Calabrese