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The city building code requires that wires pass through a fireproof conduit made of metal collars between floors, but a licensed master electrician with contracts at four Midtown hotels was caught using wood instead. Each metal collar costs $350, so it's likely that electrician Robert Spallino was able to cut costs by using wooden versions. It's also likely that the collars were flammable, being made of wood and all. A DOB source tells the Post that Spallino even painted the collars "a dark color in the hopes that they would go undetected." Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri says, "This contractor was willing to put people's lives in danger in order to save a few dollars, and his actions must not go unpunished." You might think the punishment would end Spallino's career, but he's just been suspended for a year. And the suspension won't begin for another eight months so he can close out existing contracts. Way to send a message, DOB! The wooden fakes have all been replaced with metal collars; they were found at the Garden Chelsea Hotel, the Holiday Inn on West 26th Street, the Sheraton Midtown Hotel on West 40th Street, and the Fairfield Inn on West 40th Street.
Electrician Used Wood Instead Of Fireproof Metal For Wiring
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Lifetime ban plus penalties plus jail time plus community service.
save a few dollars? more like make a few dollars.
I hope gothamist posters never have to deal with this agency, I'd rather be water boarded.
This happens all the time in construction.
Of course it does, because there's no real enforcement so why bother throwing money away sticking to the codes?
Scum.
"You might think the punishment would end Spallino's career, but he's just been suspended for a year. And the suspension won't begin for another eight months so he can close out existing contracts."
Suspended a year and fined $100,000. Which is good news, because fines for this stuff are usually insignificant.
Being allowed to close out existing contracts is something that will be welcomed by those clients, who otherwise would have to hire someone else to do the work, have completion delayed, and have to fight him in court to get at least some of their money back. Since DOB says they will, and presumably actually will, closely scrutinize the work on those sites this really is the best approach. Why should his customers be punished?
How is using wood dangerous? it's not a conductor of electricity.....
It's dangerous if a fault develops in the wiring. The use of metal conduits is why you see "faulty wiring" as the cause of fires in old buildings much more often than in those built after this practice became the norm.
Thank you very much! I did not know that.
As much as we'd like to see this guys suffer, does DOB have the power to ruin his worthless life?
Electricity passing through wires creates heat. In a large building, I'm sure that since electrical demands are higher, the heat produced from that can cause the wood to burn.
That's why it's fire-proof, not electricity-proof.
Don't worry bout the wood and power and fire. We got sprinklers for that. Rock on man!
He'll be working on putting the Throgs Neck back together in a year.
Hmmmm. Those addresses sound like McSam buildings to me.
he should lose his license.
They found out. Damn.
Metal collars are used at slab and bearing wall penetrations so as not to weaken the wall or slab and to create a fire-resistant seal. When a hole large enough to pass a conduit through is made, an adjustable steel collar is used to line the hole, then mineral wool and a caulking substance called firestopping is troweled into the void inside the pipe and around the conduit. This is to prevent fire from spreading from one area, or floor to another. Most buildings are made with wood, at least partially, it has nothing to do with the wood being flammable. The real risk here is if that there is not a fire-resistant seal from one floor to another. So when this guy cored a hole through the concrete slab from one floor to another he used wood, instead of a steel collar, and probably did a Hollywood on the firestopping. So if the 6th Floor had a fire for whatever reason, it would easily spread to the 7th Floor instead of being contained at least long enough for the 6th Floor to be put out.
In buildings with wood framing, steel clad BX wire, which is code in NYC, run through wood all over the place. There is no innate danger in this, and the wire is insulated and does not heat up to set wood framing on fire as one of the comments suggested.
The comments suggest this happens all the time, but I've never seen anyone do it. I bet he is some non-union penny-pinching idiot, who doesn't even understand the point of the practice and the danger he put hundreds of people in.