Newsday

The New York City Fire Department also did not have a contingency plan for fighting a fire there, as is required for every building in the city, city and fire officials revealed yesterday.

The abandoned building was filled with hazardous chemicals, holes in the floors and a maze of plastic sheeting that made it a virtual death trap for firefighters.

Main contractor Bovis Lend Lease released from its contract John Galt Corp., of Valley Cottage, N.Y., which had been taking down the building when last Saturday's deadly blaze broke out, killing two firefighters.

"The numerous citations issued with respect to employee safety and the failure to properly maintain all required site safety precautions are only some areas of concern," James Abadie, the principal-in-charge of Bovis Lend Lease, wrote in a letter to John Galt explaining why the company's contract is in default.

Work on the building was stopped immediately after the fire, and now that John Galt has been taken off the project, it isn't likely to resume soon.

The building's central water pipe, which was found disconnected on Saturday, the day of the fire, and is one of the factors blamed for the deaths of two firefighters, also was not being inspected regularly, as the law requires, city and fire officials said.

"Things didn't go right," Steve Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said Tuesday. "In the end, we lost two firefighters in a toxic building that's about to be torn down. It's unacceptable that it happened."

The Fire Department is still investigating how the deadly blaze started, city officials said yesterday. Both Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched investigations into the fire this week.

Cassidy said for more than a year before the fire, local firefighters were not allowed into the building for regular inspections because of poor air quality. He is asking who was doing the inspections, if not the local firehouse.

Fire Department spokesman Jim Long said the department is looking into why there was no pre-fire plan for the building and why it was not inspecting the water pipe regularly. However, even if the department was not inspecting the water pipe, the city building department was, city officials said. According to building department records, only the day before the fire, an inspection showed the pipe seemed to be working. When it was taken apart - part of the pipe was found lying on the floor after the fire - remains a mystery, officials said.

A spokesman for the building's owner, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., did not comment on the default.

Q&A

Why was subcontractor John Galt taken off the job of tearing down the Deutsche Bank building?

Before the blaze, both the city and federal governments had issued it numerous violations for openings in the floor, falling debris and sparks near combustible material.

Did the New York City Fire Department have a contingency plan for fighting a fire there, as required?

No. Yet the building was filled with chemicals, holes in the floors and a maze of plastic sheeting, presenting firefighters with a deadly challenge.

When was the building's central water pipe disconnected?

No one knows. An inspection only the day before the fire showed the pipe was assembled properly and seemed to be working, according to building department records.