Photograph of Deutsche Bank fire by Todd Myers Last year, the former Deutsche Bank building was in the process of being dismantled when a fire broke out on August 18. It escalated into a seven-alarm blaze, and two firefighters died after when their oxygen tanks were depleted. It turned out a construction worker's smoking caused the fire, but there were a host of other problems, from the dismantled standpipe (which brings water up in......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a child shot on Kingsborough Walk in Brooklyn, a person under a train at Kingston Ave. and Lincoln Pl. in Brooklyn, and a pedestrian struck at 12th St. and 8th Ave. in Manhattan. John Mayer performed an impromptu set at the Mercury Lounge to the surprise of attendees last night. John Galt Corp., the contractor doing the demolition work at the Deutsche Bank Building where two firefighters were killed,......

Wow - the NY Post got a hold of a FDNY battalion chief's 2005 memo that clearly outlines a plan for fighting fires at the Deutsche Bank building. The FDNY had admitted last week that it did not have a pre-fire plan before the August 18 fire that required over 200 firefighters and took the lives of two. The Post has two pages of Battalion Chief William Siegel's memo (page 1, 2), which included......

Yesterday, firefighters and the community were in Bay Ridge to remember Joseph Graffagnino, one of the firefighters who died while fighting last Saturday's 7-alarm fire at the Deutsche Bank building. The building, which was in the process of being dismantled, has been described as a deathtrap, what with the contractors using flammable materials, a broken standpipe (which couldn't deliver water to the fire), and a lack of FDNY inspection. Graffagnino and fellow Engine 24,......

The FDNY did not inspect the Deutsche Bank building every 15 days, "as required by city rules for buildings being demolished" (NY Times). This revelation, coupled with the fact that the FDNY did not have a plan to go into the burning building, prompts the Post to demand that Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta leave his post. The city's official update about the investigation into the Saturday fire, which required 275 firefighters and claimed the lives......