by AUSTIN FENNER
The investigation into last month's deadly blaze at the former Deutsche Bank building should go all the way up the FDNY ladder - to the desk of Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, the head of the firefighters union said yesterday.
"Subpoenas need to be issued to those in decision-making capacity at headquarters, and they must be compelled to give testimony under oath," said Uniformed Firefighters Association President Stephen Cassidy.
The department's current investigation is nothing more than "a whitewash" to distract the public from decisions that led to the deaths of two firefighters, Cassidy said.
Joseph Graffagnino and Robert Beddia were overcome by smoke and died Aug. 18 in the contaminated building near Ground Zero. Officials later learned that city-mandated FDNY inspections - which would have detected an inoperative standpipe - hadn't been conducted for more than a year.
FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon said the amount of air in Beddia's tank is also under investigation.
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