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(New York- WABC, August 29, 2007) - A fire official, reassigned for failing to order inspections of the contaminated Deutsche Bank building near ground zero where two firefighters died, said on Wednesday that the FDNY had a long-standing policy not to go into the building because of toxic debris concerns.
And a retired firefighter from Engine 10/Ladder 10 said he was instructed by a battalion chief two years ago never to go into the former Deutsche Bank tower again after he and three others donned protective suits and boots to search the building for falling glass.
The chief told the firefighters, "That's it. You guys don't go in this building no more. This is not right," said retired firefighter Peter D'Ancona.
The FDNY on Monday reassigned three officials they said either ignored suggestions to develop a complete fire plan for the partially dismantled tower or failed to inspect it as required.
The department said it hadn't inspected the building's standpipe, which sends water through the building, in over a year before the August 18th blaze. It was required to do so every 15 days. The standpipe was broken at the time of the fire, leaving more than 100 firefighters with a scant water supply to fight the flames.
Captain Peter Bosco, who came to Engine 10/Ladder 10 within the last year, was one of the three officials reassigned this week for failing to inspect the building. Bosco "inherited an existing policy of non-inspection" of the building, his lawyer and brother, John Bosco, said in a statement.
Boscoe said the policy was in place "to protect firefighters from exposure to deadly and noxious airborne toxins." The statement did not say how the captain learned of the policy; John Bosco didn't immediately return a telephone message Wednesday.
FDNY spokesman Jim Long said the department is still investigating to determine what the firehouse's policy was and whether chiefs gave varying instructions about the building. "They're trying to determine all that you're asking," he said.
D'Ancona, who retired last November from the firehouse, said two supervisors told him and his colleagues in 2005 that the department would no longer enter the building because of toxic materials inside. Firefighters are among thousands of people who attribute cancers and respiratory disease to breathing in the dust from the smoking World Trade Center ruins after 9/11.
D'Ancona said when he arrived at the tower sometime in 2005 to inspect it after a report of falling glass, he was told to don protective suits and duct-taped booties. Before leaving, they went through decontamination showers and their suits were vacuumed of any toxic dust.
The chiefs "were looking to protect us, the firefighters from any deadly contaminants in this building," D'Ancona said.
The union representing fire officers wrote a letter Wednesday to Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta seeking a formal report of an April 2005 visit to the tower, which the city said last week was attended by battalion and division members overseeing the local firehouse.
John McDonnell, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, said that the visit should have provided top officials in the department information about the fire hazards and toxins in the building.
State and city officials are conducting multiple investigations into the blaze, which was believed to have started by discarded cigarettes left by construction workers. Prosecutors have subpoenaed records from the fire department, city Department of Buildings, the building's contractors and its owner, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, but have yet to receive any documents.
Officials from Bovis Lend Lease, the building's main contractor, answered some questions at a raucous community board meeting Wednesday night but declined to speak about the fire, citing the investigation. They said the firm was developing a new safety plan and expected to have the broken standpipe repaired and operational by Friday.
Company officials also defended their performance. An executive, James Abadie, said the company had at least six safety managers at the site full time before the fire. City building inspectors were also on the property every day, he said.
"We were the only contractor willing to step forward to take down this building," Bovis Executive Vice President Mark Melson told the crowd of around 200 people, some of whom greeted company officials with catcalls.
Joseph Graffagnino, whose firefighter son was killed by the blaze, said he was disappointed that Bovis officials couldn't answer questions about the fire, but he wasn't ready to condemn them for his son's death. "I don't blame Bovis," he said. "I don't know who to blame."
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