by Douglas Feiden
The state has "grave concerns" about recent safety problems at the toxic Deutsche Bank tower, where two firefighters died in 2007, the Daily News has learned.
In the past three months, a series of potentially deadly blunders set off alarms with the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency overseeing demolition of the troubled building next to Ground Zero.
A spotlight melted; a wrench dropped by a worker fell 225 feet, hitting another laborer; a sidewalk shed was gashed; diesel oil spilled on Greenwich St.; a Bobcat loader nearly plunged through a hole in a deck, and a blowtorch was used too close to a fuel tank.
This occurred despite all the attention given the site after Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino died in an August 2007 fire that turned fatal because of unsafe conditions created during demolition.
"The building was a deathtrap back then, and unfortunately, you have to wonder if it's still a deathtrap today," said Joseph Graffagnino Sr., whose son perished on a 14th-floor landing.
In a Jan. 29 letter, LMDC President David Emil warned contractor Bovis Lend Lease that its safety record at the site was a "failure" and its management of the job "unacceptable."
Emil ordered Bovis to shake up top staff and overhaul safety operations immediately.
"There has been a failure by senior management at Bovis to properly manage safety issues," Emil told The News. "We have grave concerns about the quality of their work, and we're expressing that very forcefully to them."
Bovis has agreed to review "the entire project - including safety processes, protocol and personnel," said Mary Costello, a Bovis senior vice president.
As the general contractor at the site, the Australian firm has been closely watched since it narrowly escaped indictment for its role in the Aug. 18, 2007, fire.
That scrutiny is intensifying. Last month alone, the city Buildings Department slapped Bovis or its subcontractors with at least a dozen safety violations, alleging offenses that could endanger the lives of workers and the safety of the public.
That's more infractions in a single month than any time since the seven-alarm fire. Bovis would not address specific violations; it plans to appeal most of them.
Costello noted there have been "zero lost-time injuries to workers or injuries to the public" in the past three months.
Emil countered, "There could have been - and that's simply unacceptable."
Shrouded in black netting, New York's most hated skyscraper - its 1,750 windows and 158,000 square feet of office space destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - was bought by the LMDC in 2004.
Bovis began abatement and demolition of the 41-story tower in 2006, a simultaneous process that turned the building into a fire hazard.
A Bovis site safety manager and a reputedly mob-connected subcontractor, the John Galt Co., were indicted on manslaughter and other charges. The case is pending.
Bovis avoided prosecution by signing an agreement with the prosecutors and pledging millions of dollars for a fire safety academy, among other things.
After stripping the building of potential toxins over a two-year period, the company resumed demolition last Nov. 9 of what had become a 26-story building.
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