by JOHN ANNESE
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- In the city's first month of stepped-up fire inspections after a deadly blaze in a condemned skyscraper, officials say 97 percent of buildings under construction or demolition have been inspected within the required 15 days.
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta ordered the inspection overhaul after the investigation into the Aug. 18 fire showed that the toxic Ground Zero building -- condemned since the 2001 World Trade Center attack -- had not been inspected for more than a year.
Some of the hazardous conditions were said to have made firefighting exceedingly difficult; Firefighter Robert Beddia of South Beach and a Brooklyn cohort died.
"We are determined to turn this terrible tragedy into an opportunity to improve safety for our first responders and the public," Scoppetta said.
Scoppetta told the City Council yesterday that hundreds of sites are now locked into a regular inspection cycle. Previously, the department had not even known some of those sites existed, and many were believed never to have been inspected.
The stepped-up inspections have come under fire from union officials, who argue that fire and emergency responses have suffered because fire companies are busy doing additional inspection duties.
Jack McDonnell, the president of the Uniformed Fire Officers, criticized Scoppetta's plan as "dangerous" and "reckless," citing statistics that show the FDNY has responded to a record 485,000 incidents this year. The statistics released by the union show that 43 percent of those incidents were medical emergencies and 41 percent were non-fire emergencies. Roughly 10 percent were fires.
"In what appears to be a haphazard, poorly planned new schedule for building inspections, the department now requires a third tour of building inspections that is causing havoc in the field," McDonnell said.
McDonnell is calling for the FDNY to hire a dedicated building inspection bureau.
ASSOCIATED PRESS material was used in this report.
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