August 21, 2007
Broken Pipe Couldn't Carry Water to Help Fight Fire
The more we read about what was happening during the Deutsche Bank building's dismantling and how it turned into, as the Daily News put it, a "deathtrap," the more infuriating it is. A Saturday seven-alarm fire at the building required 275 firefighters and led to the deaths of two.
Not only was a standpipe valve shut off (NY Times: "effectively cutting off the only source of water for firefighters battling" the fire), but even if the valve was open, water wouldn't have been able to travel through the pipes because there were many cracks. Wait, actually it wasn't just shut - a piece of the pipe was actually found in the basement. Seriously, WTF.
The News also reports that stairwells were "sealed" and that the "supposedly 'fire-retardant plywood' used to build decontamination chambers on the floors for workers clearing asbestos and other toxic substances quickly went up in flames." A source told the Post that the contractors could be possibly be charged with criminally negligent homicide. Needless to say, there's a stop-work order at the building.
Mayor Bloomberg said, "We are using every possible resource to find out how this fire started and what went wrong. Certainly, we owe that to Firefighters Beddia and Graffagnino." And here's the city's response to the situation so far - downtown residents, the city still says the air is clear (grain of salt not included).
Photograph of workers testing the air around the Deutsche Bank building by dietrich on Flickr
|
Weren't there inspectors all over the building? How could they have missed a detached pipe?
This building has been mismanaged ever since 9/11. Its really horrible it has now led to two more firefighters dead...
Joe, that depends entirely on when the pipe was detached. Either way, let's charge every individual who had a say in the standpipe being disassmbled, down to the guy who actually did it and any inspector who knew about it.
Also, how does a building not have working stairwells all the way to the ground floor? And kudos to the construction worker who stuck around to operate the elevator (though I live in fear of learning that it was his cigarette).
The stairwells were boarded up with plywood, to keep the contaminants from spreading between floors as they cleaned up each floor individually.
OB, I had that same thought. Let's hope we're wrong.
Every construction worker at that site, every inspector who passed faulty work, and the assholes who left a chunk of piping in the basement: if your house burns, the fire department will still show up at and put the fire out, and risk themselves to save your sorry skins.
So earn it, jackasses. Stand up, and admit where you screwed up, and make sure you don't do it again.
accountability... our nation as a whole has a HUGE problem with accountability...
Why does it take this city/stete/country six years to dismantle a building?
accountability... our nation as a whole has a HUGE problem with accountability...
Thank the lawyers for that. They have a created a culture where if you admit fault you open yourself up to lawsuits. So nobody will admit anything and everyone tries to shift blame. Ironically, the VA hospital system tried a pilot program where doctors admitted mistakes. The result was more lawsuits but an overall decrease in total dollar amount of settlements. Turns out people really do just want an apology. Unfortunately that's not good for the legal profession.
Nice, lets blame the individuals doing the dangerous shit-work no one wants to do instead of wondering why the company running the whole process had been allowing (probably fully aware) things to be mismanaged to this extent.
Last I remember, the constitution has been interpreted to consider a corporation as an individual. Why does everyone rush to blame the people who don't make the choices? You think the workers aren't upset they were working in an insane fire trap?
John Galt construction, numerous violations given from both OSHA and NYC DOB.
What I want to know is why the chief of the LMDC was down there so quickly? something is fishy.
MONEY.