NY Post

"I'm going to find something - it will not be with the names around the two voids," Bloomberg told reporters at a press conference at the Brooklyn Navy Yard yesterday. "That's going to be for those people that died that day."

FDNY Strengthens Inspection Programs In Wake Of Deutsche Bank Fire NY 1 11/8/07 After a fire at the former Deutsche Bank building claimed the lives of two city firefighters, the Fire Department said Wednesday that it's overhauling its building inspection policy – in the hopes of averting a similar situation in the future. NY1's Amanda Farinacci filed the following report.

It is still unclear what fire officials knew about the former Deutsche Bank building before the fatal August 18 fire, or why no one knew the staircases inside had been sealed and why mandatory inspections had not been conducted. But what Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta says he does know is that the department will do all it can to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"Sometimes a crisis really presents an opportunity," said Scoppetta. "We took a comprehensive look at our inspection programs and we decided we could strengthen the inspection programs."

Under a new building inspection program that went into effect earlier this week, the Buildings Department now notifies the FDNY anytime it issues a new building or demolition permit. Surprisingly, field units used to have to canvass their response areas to learn that information.

There's also a new computer program to keep track of all buildings more than 75-feet high that are going up or coming down. They have to be inspected every 15 days. The program reminds units when their next inspection is due.

Finally, the new policy means firefighters will now spend nine hours every week doing building inspections, up from the six hours they used to do on a weekly basis.

"It's extremely important for units to do their own inspections," said the fire commissioner. "They get an opportunity to see the buildings they're going to respond to emergencies in, and that's critically important."

However, the head of the fire officers union has some grave concerns about the new building inspection policy – including the possible impact it could have on response times.

"If the alarm is on the west end and they're all the way on the east end, obviously there's going to be a significant increase in their response time," said Jack McDonnell, president of the Unformed Fire Officers Association.

The Fire Department says the additional field inspections won't have an effect on response times because companies in the same response areas won't likely schedule inspections at the same time.

In the meantime, the UFOA is planning to speak to the City Council about resurrecting a building task force used under the Giuliani administration, with a special team of firefighters dedicated specifically to building inspections.