Dubai Debt Issues Push Stocks Down
GMA: Adam Lambert, No; Chris Brown, Yes
Family Gets Early Christmas Gift From Ellen DeGeneres
Mayor: Sex Trafficking Victims, Please Speak Up
Street Artist Proposes on Subway Signage
Yesterday, the city announced that cigarette smoking by construction workers most likely caused the seven-alarm fire at the under-demolition Deutsche Bank building that claimed the lives of two firefighters on August 18. FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said, "Smoking was engaged in throughout the building, and particularly on the 17th floor, where the fire originated."
However, the FDNY was not entirely blameless in the incident. It was revealed that the FDNY did not keep up with inspections or heed recommendations for a plan to fights fire at the building on 130 LIberty Street and three fire officials were demoted in the wake of the investigation. Deputy Chief Richard Fuerch, Battalion Chief John McDonald and Capt. Peter Bosco were reassigned to FDNY headquarters and Mayor Bloomberg noted that Fuerch had, per the Times, "decided against drawing up a site-specific firefighting plan."
Fire union Uniformed Firefighters Association said that Fuerch, Bosco and McDonald's reassignments were a "knee jerk reaction." The half-brother of one of the fallen firefighters told the Daily News, "It's premature to be pointing fingers [and] the last people I'm going to blame are the Fire Department. Bobby [Beddia, a 23-year FDNY vet] would've gone in there no matter what." And Uniformed Fire Officers Association president John McDonnell says that contractor Bovis Lend Lease had claimed a standpipe, which carries water for fires and was missing a 20-foot piece during the fire, was in working order.
The city may hold more fire officials accountable, though it's unclear whether Commissioner Scoppetta will step down as some papers have been suggesting. And during his press conference, Mayor Bloomberg also said:
"As we are all painfully aware, we buried two firefighters last week. They were brave men, who served this city with honor and distinction. They took risks in their line of work. Everyone understands that. But we have an obligation to them to reduce those risks wherever possible.Here is the FDNY's response and new procedures in the wake of the fire. The city will also be making sure that demolition work will not undermine the FDNY's ability to fire fires."As a city, we failed to do that. The failures have many owners. They are both in the private sector and the public sector. My job is to oversee this City government - so we have been focusing on the City agencies involved with these tragic events.
"I am not interested in finger-pointing. I simply want to fix what is broken. That's why we have spent a lot of time over the past 10 days trying to account for those failures, trying to determine what specifically the obligations of this government were ,and to take steps necessary to prevent these failures from occurring again."
Photograph of Fire Commissioner Scoppetta and Mayor Bloomberg by Edward H.R. Gluck/AP
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Their union filed a grievance 30 seconds after the demotion. This being America, those guys will get their full pay and any lost overtime.
they're re-assigned so they're still getting paid.
but why overtime? this being America.
This is making bloomberg look bad, why so quick to blame the FDNY? why not blame his administration?
See smoking kills.
*This being America*???
what are you talking about? any nation that's democratic would conduct a full investigation before not paying anyone. that's just how it works.
And the blame game begins..... round and around we go....Everyonre involved should just "Suck it up" and deal with the fact that these guys died because of mistakes across the board!!!
Nothing good ever comes from smoking.
Smoking causes:
-cancer
-other diseases
-excrutiating death
-littering
-fires
pros:
-makes you look "cool"
-relaxes you
One thing you can be sure of,this was no union job.
The workers would have thrown the contractor under the bus.
Another thought,where was the State of New York on the asbestos removal process.
Crazy, over 200 workers on site,not one could make a simple call to Osha to protect the workers and maybe could havesaved the firemen as well.
I say,hang the General Contracting firm.
Too much sitting around the fire house twiddling thumbs and watching sports. OVERPAID UNDERWORKED. Run those inspections, get out of the fire house and get some excercise. Work for the amount you get paid for.
Reflect, be prepared to be torn apart here for that really moronic comment.
#7 - You're correct. Unions have become bloated, but one thing that I wholly agree with them on is safe working conditions.
# 8 Reflect I don't think it was a Moronic comment at all. That is his opinion. He does have a point in some firehouses in the City though. But they have specific days to do the inspections. I believe it is once a year?? You should correct me if I am wrong. But some houses are way busy since they also respond to 911 ambulance calls too.
Anyway, this is America and we all have opinions. While I don’t really 100% agree with him (not that he needs me too) I can not condemn him either. Lighten up people, we don’t all have to agree.
#9, why would he get torn apart on this site? Don't you remember the final event in the Hipster Olympics?
The firefighters running into the buildings aren't the ones responsible for making the inspections get done. That's the upper echelon of FDNY, and they've failed their men. I'm disappointed it's only three heads that are rolling.
Oh, and Reflect -- don't worry. If your place ever goes up in flames, they'll show up.
#12 Yes but the local Fire Houses do inspections as well. They check for working exit lights, they map out halls and rooms. They do come to do onsite inspections. In the Bronx and Brooklyn they came once a year. Just in case there is a fire, they know what they are up againist. Maybe Manhattan is different???
13: Once a year is sufficient for a building that isn't undergoing demolition and changing daily. My office layout hasn't changed in the two years I've been here. The inspections of the demolition site were a different creature all together.
"I am not interested in finger-pointing. I simply want to fix what is broken."
Baloney. How about the LMDC - they were broken from day 1, weren't they? For years Bloomberg didn't even bother to appoint his representitives. But he will never point the finger at them - to do so would question the basic malaise at GZ, the LMDC and PA, and that would not be PC. Now that millions - billions - is being spent at GZ, and the effort involved is becoming apparent, now the need for good plans is starting to be appreciated?
If the building was owned by a private owner, he would be hung out to dry.
Pataki appointed LMDC leadership based on their ability to create the illusion of competence. Spitzer left all their decisions in place. Now all the present LMDC can more or less do is damage control.
this is the second fire in the last couple months that was attributed to smoking and caused firefighters deaths.
Silver was right when he said Pataki was focused on photo-ops instead of getting the job done. The problems at GZ and the Deutsche Bank are a lot bigger than just smokers.
There was a conflict in fire department policies. One policy called for no inspections to protect firefighters from exposure to toxins at 130 Liberty St. The other policy called for inspections to make sure fire codes were being complied with. The decision as to which policy to follow was made before Captain Bosco arrived at Engine 10 in late December or early January. None the less Bloomberg has decided to hold Captain Bosco responsible.
However the LMDC leadership - and Gov. Spitzer - will probably be left off the hook because they inherited 130 Libert St. in January. This is a double standard. And it should be noted Bloomberg and Doctoroff were on the job long before January. Smaller heads will take the blame.
How did continual violations get by so many inspectors? Is it possible there are payoffs in the NY construction industry. However the parties involved ..... John Galt...... LMDC.... are above such practices.
Blame relatively low level FD personal because they didn't do inspections. Don't blame the inspectors that did inspections.
If John Galt got the contract its likely a lot of people were paid off.
Contd...... If John Galt had the contract, probably lots of people were paid off - from the top (getting the contract) tothe bottom.... Why do think inspectors ignored smoking, etc. Do you think this will be investigated? Unlikely. Its cleaner to blame the 3 FD people.
See: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/nyregion/30deutsche.html?ref=nyregion
Payoffs could go all the way to the top - even members of the Pataki and Bush administration. All GZ could be controlled by a criminal element - or worse.
Remember Charles Gargano, running the Port Authority - mob ties? The whole site could be a mob job, the child of corruption. The Bush and Pataki administrations could have been full of corruption. I think the billions of federal aid has not been fullly accounted for. Pataki rewarded with an ambassadorship? This could be one of the biggest scandels in US history. Maybe Spitzer had the wool pulled over his eyes.
It would be good to know when the standpipe section was removed, records should have been kept on everything. Or maybe Bovis or Galt forgot to payoff somebody and there was spontaneous combustion.
If organised crime was involved and lots of people were being paid off, I'm skeptical of any investigations, whether by Morganthau, Cuomo (if anything he might sabatoge the investigation), or the FBI. Organised crime probably has stuff on lots of top people (Hoover?), and if payoffs went to the top (how else can you explin the Pataki administration's "decisions"?), there is a good chance these investigations will go nowhere. It's like expecting the Saddam regime to have investigated itself.
The standpipe section wasn't removed. It fell off on its own. Ever hear of gravity? And the fire was probably spontaneous combustion.
From the Observer, about the "open process", the people Bovis sent tothe public meeting didn't know how the contracts were given out:
"But residents at the meeting last night wondered how Galt was hired in the first place, since the company had no experience doing the kind of work they were contracted to do, and allegedly had ties to organized crime. Bovis Executive Vice President Mark Melson and Senior Vice President James Abadie are asked that question by a local resident. "Who forced your hand? Was it the former governor? Was it the former governor’s mentor, Al D’Amato? Who was that person," the resident asked. Melson said he didn't know."
Surely someone at Bovis or the LMDC must know. But I guess the process is confidential how the LMDC spends the public's money. And a lot of times people just can't remember. If there's a truly honest investigation Pataki would probably go to jail, but don't hold your breath. "A fish stinks from it's head."
To find out how the contracts were given out the prosecutors would probably have to supoena former members of the LMDC, the PA, and possibly even Pataki. But don't expect that. Expect the blame to be put on some relatively low level people who basically had nothing to do with it, and this story to quietly disappear, and the public will go on to other stories like Paris Hilton's underwear, some other disaster, etc.
Don't be suprised if at Bovis a vice president or two take the blame and are demoted or transferred. Nothing changes. Yawn.....
Reputable people bidding on the demolition contract were threatened and then dropped out. So is it legitimate for Bloomberg to say Galt was the only one interested in doing it? Why didn't Galt (or Bovis) drop out? Weren't they threatened? No..... because their representitives were doing the threatening.
Today, Sept. 5, Steve Cassidy (UFA) said "Not only has the Fire Department not investigated conditions leading up to the tragedy, but it has compromised its own investigation by leaking information." I don't know if this is true or not, but if organised crime is running GZ don't expect there to be much of an investigation, just a handful of fall guys.
Obviously the building owner (LMDC) bears no responsibility for this tragedy.
If the Fire Department is not investigatiing conditions leading up to the fire, its because higher ups are deliberately blocking an honest investigation and corruption has effected the highest levels of city, state, and federal government, and all the investigations are BS.
Pataki got into office because he wasn't Cuomo - the public didn't want the BS. Now it appears there wasn't much difference.
An interesting start to organized crime in GZ:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/09/09/2007-09-09_daily_news_probe_finds_wtc_contractors_w-1.html
The fire commisioner and Bloomberg are idiots to use the 3 fire chiefs as scapegoats, maybe the Post was right, how about the commissioner taking some responsibility... or would that make Bloomberg look bad.... see this article:
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F0061EFA395E0C7B8CDDA00894DF404482
Stephen Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said fire investigators are being ordered not to ask critical questions about who in the upper echelons of the department are to blame for the fact that there was no pre-fire plan to battle a blaze in the toxic building.
"We've been told that safety command has been ordered specifically to only look at what happened operationally the day of the fire," Cassidy said. "They're not allowed, they've been ordered not to, not to specifically look at anything prior to the day of the fire."
If the Deutsche Bank was privately owned the mayor would have had the owners crucified, and the owners and or contractors would probably be facing criminal charges. Instead the mayor says "I am not interested in finger-pointing. I simply want to fix what is broken." And then the mayor points the finger of blame at 3 fire chiefs, who are certainly innocent compared to the conduct of others. But if GZ is full of corruption the mayor wouldn't want the scandel exposed, it would end his presidential aspirations.
Almost all fires in NYC were in buildings that were not inspected at 15 day intervals. But in this embarrasing case the FD and mayor have discovered this and address this by disiplining 3 scapegoats?
Why was a defense lawyer hired to represent the city in the criminal investigation of the fire? Are/were people being paid off? Impossible!
Why were all the statements about people at GZ being paid off deleted?