More than 100 firefighters – including two who later died – rushed into a contaminated, vacant high-rise that was burning out of control just steps from Ground Zero, even though commanders had no plan of attack for fighting a fire in the building, officials admitted yesterday.
Already under demolition, the Deutsche Bank building holds no value except for the land it occupies.
Yet two of New York’s Bravest died preserving what some call “a vertical Love Canal” without so much as the benefit of a pre-fire plan, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta admitted yesterday.
The FDNY update on its investigation revealed a litany of work order violations, and a number of missed opportunities to correct the one problem that could have kept the two firefighters alive – a broken standpipe.
Scoppetta’s update said a fire plan is currently being developed for the toxic building – four days after the deadly blaze.
“Commissioner Scoppetta has directed that this investigation also examine why the department did not have a pre-fire plan for the building,” the update said.
“A fire plan is currently being developed for 130 Liberty St. by the FDNY Operations Unit.”
Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino died Saturday after they ran out of oxygen on the 14th floor of the bank building, where an out-of-control fire grew to seven alarms as frustrated firefighters waited nearly an hour for water to arrive.
Investigators later learned that a crucial 20-foot section of a standpipe – designed to carry water from the sidewalk to fight fires throughout the high-rise – had recently been cut in the basement.
Officials investigating the blaze also determined that the building’s sprinkler system was not operational.
The developments led to a round of finger-pointing from agencies including the Fire Department, the Department of Buildings and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which owns the building.
But the largest measure of blame was laid at the feet of the project’s subcontractor, John Galt Corp., which was fired yesterday after numerous safety violations.
“Over recent weeks and most notably in the days following the tragic accident that occurred at the project site on Aug. 18, 2007, Galt has demonstrated an inability to comply with the terms of its trade contract with respect to site supervision, maintenance and project safety,” an executive for Bovis Lend Lease, the main contractor, wrote in a letter to the company.
“The numerous citations issued with respect to employee safety and the failure to properly maintain all required site safety precautions are only some areas of concern, all of which combine to create a breach and an event of default of the trade contract.”
Among those citations were ignoring a stop-work order and removing exterior beams in an unsafe manner.
The more serious violations showed that the operation was a fire waiting to happen. On Aug. 1 – less than three weeks before the deadly blaze – a stop-work order was issued when inspectors saw sparks shooting down an elevator shaft near combustible debris.
Two days later, a certificate to store or use an acetylene and oxygen tank on the premises for demolition work had expired, prompting another stop-work order.
Gregg Blinn, a John Galt Corp. executive, declined to comment on the firing.
Emotional wakes were held yesterday for Beddia and Graffagnino. Firefighter union president Steve Cassidy declined to comment until after the funerals about the FDNY’s admission that it had no fire plan.
Additional reporting by Murray Weiss
leonard.greeneATnypost.com