Of all the places for workers to sever a standpipe: The Daily News reports that workers "mistakenly" "bashed the horizontal section" of standpipe at the former Deutsche Bank Building. The under-demolition building was the site of a 2007 fire which claimed the lives of two firefighters; it was later found that no water was available at the scene because a large piece of the standpipe had been removed. In this recent incident, the workers didn't think the piece they severed was "part of the mostly vertical standpipe." Though an alarm went off, warning the pipe no longer had water pressure, at 8:30 a.m., the building wasn't evacuated until 3:30 p.m. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said he wants an investigation, "I call it an outrage because part of what we have really worked to do, to make sure that when trouble hits the building, there is an immediate warning to the workers within the building and to the residents throughout the community." more ›

A piece in The New York Times today shows that that the residents of 475 Kent are not prepared to go quietly after their recent eviction due to fire safety violations. Even the landlord of the owner of the nearly block-long building near the Navy Yard in Brooklyn wants his tenants back in and is cooperating with them to that end. more ›