by AL BAKER
Unions representing city firefighters and officers charged yesterday that Fire Department officials ordered a halt to internal e-mail messages about the Deutsche Bank building fire that killed two firefighters in August.
In alleging a cover-up, the union presidents cited two high-level meetings in mid-September at which, they said, two senior chiefs called for a cessation of e-mail messages about the building. The union leaders provided no evidence, but one of them, John J. McDonnell, the president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, said a union official at each meeting heard the two chiefs give the orders.
Fire officials strenuously denied the union leaders' accusations against the two chiefs.
"There is no truth to these allegations, none whatsoever," said Francis X. Gribbon, the department's chief spokesman. He said that the two commanders cited by union officials had themselves exchanged an e-mail message about the Deutsche Bank building early yesterday morning.
The dispute over responsibility for the Aug. 18 fire and the circumstances that led to the deaths of the firefighters, Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino, involves a diverse group of entities.
The subcontractor hired for the demolition was an organization made up of executives from one company without the requisite experience and two officials from another company under scrutiny by city investigators. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owns the building, allowed its construction manager, Bovis Lend Lease, to hire the subcontractor, the John Galt Corporation. Fire Department officials say the development corporation did not share a plan for emergency escape from the bank building with fire officials.
Even within the Fire Department there have been bitter recriminations between the fire commanders, who the Bloomberg administration has said failed to inspect the bank building properly, as required, and the department's top brass, who the fire unions have maintained should have been aware that the building was not being inspected.
Yesterday, at a news conference, Mr. McDonnell and Stephen J. Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said the two chiefs who called for an end to e-mail messages were Salvatore Cassano, the chief of department, and Michael Weinlein, the Manhattan borough commander. The union leaders said the chiefs' orders about e-mail seemed to be part of a concerted effort to undermine any attempt to get to the bottom of the circumstances surrounding the fire.
Kate Hammer contributed reporting.
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