80,000 Gallons of Diesel Fuel on the Wall

Tribeca residents are upset that 60 Hudson Street still gets to house 80,000 gallons of diesel fuel. No, this fuel is not for a very cold winter, but for back-up generators since the building is a "telecom hotel" - a place for telecoms to store their equipment. The thing is that the old 7 World Trade Center had 40,000 gallons of diesel stored in its basement, and many believe that's why it collapsed, so 60 Hudson's mother lode of fuel is such a hot topic. Residents are worried that the building is a terrorist target, and Congressman Jerrold Nadler says, "Housing this much fuel in a residential area is a stupid idea, not to mention irresponsible, reckless and life threatening. We are asking for trouble." The city's stance is different: Since most of the fuel is stored underground, and whatever fuel above ground is supposedly protected by being "enclosed by floor-to-ceiling fire-resistant walls," then it's all okay! Mayor Bloomberg said, "Congressman Nadler has discovered something that has been in the papers for an awful long time. There is fuel stored there. Fuel to run generators in case of an emergency." Way to explain things, Bloomberg. Anyway, Gothamist wonders how the 80,000 gallons of diesel would be moved out of the building: Would there were tons of barrels being rolled out? And we like that this topic is out in the public, because now we know where not to move.

60 Hudson Street is actually the old Western Union building.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on July 11, 2005 2:06 PM

Comments [rss]

Doctor Memory

Oh good lord, could Nadler be any more idiotic? There are dozens of telco hotels in Manhattan, each with similar amounts of fuel onsite. 60 Hudson, 111 8th Ave, 25 Broadway, AT&T's 10th avenue building... on and on and on. All of them have this in common: they are enormous, built out of reinforced concrete, and have multimillion-dollar fire supporession systems and armed security guards.

If terrorists want to set Tribeca on fire, you know what they'll blow up? A gas station. Sheesh.

Jack

"Housing this much fuel in a residential area is a stupid idea, not to mention irresponsible, reckless and life threatening."

Dear Mr. Nadler. Historically speaking, Tribeca was not a residential area until quite recently. And even when pioneers moved into the neighborhood back in the day it was still industrial and commercial.

So this argument is ridiculous. Nadler is using the spectre of terrorism to attempt to force the building to be emptied of the fuel guzzling non-residents. I wonder if he'll try to use an eminent domain clause to attempt to force the building to go residential. Hmmm, a trend in this city it seems?

Oh, and hey 7 World Trade Center collapsed mainly because... IT WAS PART OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER AREA! Fuel or not, the foundation would have gone.

Regarding the safety of diesel fuel, the fuel is like molasses compared to gasoline. It is thick when cold and slightly more liquid when heated. So when cold, the "toss a match in it" thing is true. Slightly safer than gasoline, but the whole argument is crazy because technically residential buildings are more risky because of natural gas lines.

Jones

I am not a chemist or anything, but from what I have heard and read over the years, diesel is far less dangerous that gasoline. I have even heard that if you throw a match into a bucket of diesel, the match will go out! I would live in a building with lots of diesel fuel stored there without worrying about it. Gasoline and pure alcohol are dangerous liquid fuels, diesel is not.

plemeljr

Don't forget that this building is about a block away from the old Baby Bell Tower (now Verizon - I think) which handles a large chunk of tele/data switching in Manhattan.

Jen

Even eerier - I used to work with Trey back in 1998!

After September 11, people who lived in parts of NJ where ATT and Bell Labs housed lots of their equipment were freaked out that they would be next target. Everyone and no one is a target.

aron

What do you think hospital generators run on? Love and good intentions?

This isn't a huge problem. Also it's not one that anyone is willing to fix because there is currently no good alternative. Now we could start talking about fuel cells and such.. but last I heard they can get "blowed up real good" too.

Iwantonetoo

la lala la lala la

and. I'll sing it to the sound of the smallest violin string.

Captain Midnight

Hey, if anyone wants to give up a nice 1BR in that building, I'd be happy to take it off their hands for a song.

Dave H.

From the article you linked to about carrier hotels:

"This is ground zero, the nerve center for international telecom," said Trey Farmer, executive vice president of FiberNet telecom, as he guides a visitor through the routers and switches filling his company's operations center. "This is the most important carrier hotel in the world."

Eerie choice of words considering the building's location and the dateline on the article is 9/6/01. And given that it's now public knowledge that there's 40,000 gallons of fuel being stored there, 60 Hudson would seem to be a valuable terrorist target.