Department Officals Demoted After Deadly WTC Site Fire

[RescueKujo 130]

NEW YORK - The New York City Fire Department on Monday demoted three fire officials after a blaze at a vacant ground zero skyscraper killed two firefighters.

The department had said last week it did not have a plan in place to fight fires at the former bank tower, which was being dismantled and cleaned of toxic debris left after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks destroyed the World Trade Center next door.

The department also acknowledged it had not inspected the building's standpipe system, which connects fire hoses to its water supply, in more than a year, even though it should have done so every 15 days. The standpipe was broken at the time of the Aug. 18 fire.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. City officials have said construction workers routinely smoked near where the fire started, and that electrical equipment was also nearby.

"That tragedy really did raise difficult questions, and I promise we will get the answers," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday.

Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33, died of cardiac arrest in the fire.

Reassigned were Richard Fuerch, deputy chief and commander; battalion chief John McDonald; and Peter Bosco, a captain at the firehouse next to the 26-story partially dismantled tower.

Fuerch had received a memo more than two years before the deadly fire with recommendations for how to fight a fire in the contaminated skyscraper, the New York Post reported Monday.

The March 2005 memo, written to Fuerch by Battalion Chief William Siegel, recommended that if a fire broke out, just one officer and two firefighters should go into the building to investigate. Instead, more than 100 FDNY members rushed in to battle the flames.

A Fire Department spokesman confirmed Monday that the memo was authentic. The department would not comment on whether senior officials read the memo or accepted its recommendations.

[tbendick 27]

Funny thing is that I was able to see the end of the mayors press conf. He ended with saying that we should go finger pointing, seems a little late for that.

[Guest]

NEW YORK-- FDNY Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta announced Monday, Aug. 27, a series of changes following the fatal fire at the former Deutshe Bank building that claimed the lives of two of the city's bravest.

Firefighter Robert Beddia, 53, of Engine 24 and Firefighter Joseph Graffagnino, 34, of Ladder 5 died Aug. 18 after becoming trapped in the building.

Pending the outcome of the investigation, Deputy Chief Richard Fuerch (Division 1), Battalion Chief John McDonald (Battalion 1) and Captain Peter Bosco (Engine Company 10) have been relieved of their commands and detailed to headquarters, according to a press release.

Several other orders detailed in the press release include:

Deputy Chiefs in the Department's nine Divisions have been directed to order surveillance by every fire unit in their respective administrative areas of all buildings under construction/demolition. The purpose of these inspections is to insure that all rules and regulations regarding fire protection and public safety are being adhered to.

Divisions are also ordered to review all existing pre-fire plans in their respective administrative areas, and to have units and Battalions canvass their areas for any potential structures that might require the creation of such plans.

Borough Commanders are ordered to oversee and coordinate all field fire inspection activities in their respective boroughs.

The Chief of Operations will conduct a review of the Department's field inspection program with emphasis on insuring accountability at all levels and making recommendations to strengthen and improve the quality and frequency of inspections by field units.

[Guest]

Seems ironic to me that Scopetta who is sitting in an appointed postion that is supposed to oversee operations of the FDNY, would come down on the first arriving officers due to what has become a well established lack of a pre fire plan for the building which was an administrative issue. To relieve a Captain or even Battalion Chief of his command does not seem right. If there was indeed failure in command there fine. But it seems they are looking for someone to blame on scene. But where are the suspensions and demotions in the administrative section. Somewhere in FDNY planning on operations the ball was dropped. Also the Inspections division where were they every 15 days when they were supposed to be there . Seems like a witch hunt with them going after the most convenient and low level guys they can get .....What Staff Chief has been demoted. The guys on the ground did the best they could, with what they had.

[IzzyEng4 427]

If I remember correctly, they have this little tool call SIDS at the dispatch center which can be brought up on the MDTs on the rigs. Didn't they have this information available to them when they were responding or did the dispatchers know of this directive to remind the members about the hazards? How is anyone going to remember a memo form two years ago if they don;t have it in their run book?

I'm not knocking anymore, just curious how this slipped through the cracks on a SOG. Also its really interesting how the stand pipe system which could have been in place was damaged.

Lets hope that this unfortunate incident will make all departments realize that we have to keep up on these things.

[tbendick 27]

If I remember correctly, they have this little tool call SIDS at the dispatch center which can be brought up on the MDTs on the rigs. Didn't they have this information available to them when they were responding or did the dispatchers know of this directive to remind the members about the hazards? How is anyone going to remember a memo form two years ago if they don;t have it in their run book?

It's called CIDS Critical Dispatch Information System.

130 Liberty Street - Major Alteration - 38sty 210x320 - unoccupied - holes in floors and exterio walls floors 1 - 30 - Sprikler is out of service and Standpipe is dry - Enter through Loading dock on washington st - there is asbestos and hazardous material on all floors.

You can't put a lot of info in the CIDS it's limited to about what the above reads. As far as the memo, it was never issused to anyone. Had the memo become a pre-plan then it would have gone into a preplan book and been placed on BC, DC and most likely a few of the first due units.

[Guest partyrock]

I'm really curious to see exactly what that memo said. There is so much paper generated by the brass it can hard to keep up. This smoking gun memo could have been something as simple as "We should consider weekly inspections of WTC demolition and construction sites" or as specific as 130 Liberty needs to be inspected weekly" There's so much still to be looked at to make these moves so quickly is purely to generate headlines and appease the media. Take the time to find out who dropped the ball and then act decisively and harshly. This goes for civilians as well as FDNY personnel responsible for this tragedy.

[helicopper 1,050]

Interesting article about the demolition company selected to do this job...

August 23, 2007, The New York Times

Obscure Company Is Behind 9/11 Demolition Work

By CHARLES V. BAGLI, DAVID W. DUNLAP and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

The John Galt Corporation of the Bronx, hired last year for the dangerous

and complex job of demolishing the former Deutsche Bank building at 130

Liberty Street, where two firefighters died last Saturday, has apparently

never done any work like it. Indeed, Galt does not seem to have done much of

anything since it was incorporated in 1983.

Public and private records give no indication of how many employees it has,

what its volume of business is or who its clients are. There are almost no

accounts of any projects it has undertaken on any scale, apart from 130

Liberty Street. Court records are largely silent. Some leading construction

executives in the city say they have never even heard of it.

That may not be as surprising as it seems. John Galt, it appears, is not

much more than a corporate entity meant to accommodate the people and

companies actually doing the demolition job at the emotionally charged and

environmentally hazardous site at the edge of ground zero.

The companies and project managers who have been providing the expertise,

the workers and the financing for the job are Regional Scaffolding and

Hoisting Company, which is not in business to demolish skyscrapers, and

former executives from Safeway Environmental Corporation, a company that was

already removed from one contract at 130 Liberty because of concerns about

its integrity.

Using a separate corporation to insulate the assets of a parent company from

the enormous potential liabilities of demolition work is not itself unusual.

And challenging construction projects in the city often have several

companies come together in a joint effort.

The arrangement involving Galt - achieved after multiple companies that had

bid on the Deutsche Bank contract were eliminated for one reason or another

- is nonetheless odd for such a momentous job, one that is expected

ultimately to cost roughly $150 million.

The arrangement, never fully publicly disclosed, was proposed by the general

contractor charged with overseeing the demolition, Bovis Lend Lease, and

approved by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owns 130

Liberty Street.

Yesterday, Bovis announced that it had declared Galt in default on the bank

building contract, saying the outfit Bovis had selected had failed "to live

up to terms of its contract with respect to site supervision, maintenance

and project safety." One person who has spoken to Bovis executives, but who

was not authorized to speak for the company, said it was likely that Galt

would be formally fired within the week.

When officials at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation approved

Galt's participation, they even allowed two former senior Safeway executives

to join the operation at the Deutsche Bank building on several conditions,

including that they cooperate with an investigation being conducted by the

city's Department of Investigation.

In the 17 months since Galt took shape - and as problems mounted at the

demolition site, including repeated safety violations - city and state

officials have made announcements about the work and problems at 130 Liberty

referring to John Galt as if it were a fully established corporation, and

never mentioning by name the more controversial and less than perfectly

qualified people and companies doing the work.

(John Galt, by the way, is a central character, an engineer, in Ayn Rand's

novel "Atlas Shrugged." The book begins with this line: "Who is John Galt?")

John Galt's stationery puts its headquarters at 3900 Webster Avenue in the

Bronx, near Woodlawn Cemetery, the same address as Regional Scaffolding's.

The two companies also share many of the same officers.

Greg Blinn, who is shown in city records as the president of the John Galt

Corporation, said in a telephone interview: "I'm not really sure how I can

help. My contract precludes me from talking to the media. I have to refer

all questions or inquiries to the L.M.D.C."

Daniel L. Doctoroff, the city's deputy mayor for economic development, who

was a member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation at the time it

approved the Galt contract, said through a spokesman this week that

safeguards had been put in place to make sure that the former Safeway

executives did nothing inappropriate - like funnel money back to Safeway.

Those safeguards included enlisting the help of an integrity monitor who

would scrutinize, among other things, Galt's hiring, purchases and financial

transactions.

The complicated nature of the arrangement on the demolition job resulted to

a great extent from the difficulty Bovis and the state had in attracting any

contractors interested in, or capable of, performing the novel and

high-profile job.

It is not hard to understand why most contractors - particularly during a

building boom, when they can pick and choose work - would balk at doing a

job involving hazardous materials under microscopic regulatory scrutiny for

a governmental client whipsawed by demands that demolition go faster (so

that ground zero redevelopment could proceed) and slower (to ensure that

contaminants were not released into the neighborhood).

Add to that the extremely high cost of obtaining insurance for the work, and

the lack of any meaningful precedent for the operation, and most companies

would see a recipe for delay, escalating costs and shrinking profits.

Safeway first surfaced on the scene at 130 Liberty when it, along with

Regional Scaffolding, won a $13 million scaffolding contract in 2005 for the

bank building.

But Safeway, its former owners, Harold Greenberg, 61, and Stephen Chasin,

56, and another company they long operated, Big Apple Wrecking and

Construction Corporation, had a troubled history.

Mr. Greenberg, of Staten Island, has gone to federal prison twice for crimes

related to the industry.

Identified by federal investigators as a Gambino crime family associate, he

was convicted in 1988 of bribing a federal inspector to overlook

asbestos-removal violations while Big Apple was demolishing Gimbels

department store on East 86th Street in Manhattan. Three years later he

pleaded guilty to mail fraud in a bid-rigging scheme involving other

contractors.

Safeway's failure to disclose his criminal history and the accusations of

mob ties led the authorities to bar the company from working on city schools

in 2003. School investigators contended that Mr. Greenberg and his partner

in Big Apple and Safeway, Mr. Chasin, sought to disguise their roles in

companies in order to obtain public contracts and other work from which his

convictions would bar them.

(Safeway Environmental was one of the subcontractors used in the development

of a new headquarters for The New York Times, across Eighth Avenue from the

Port Authority Bus Terminal.)

Neither Mr. Greenberg nor Mr. Chasin could be reached for comment. Calls

left at their offices and homes were not returned.

The two former Safeway executives, Mitchel Alvo and Don Adler, declined to

comment.

At the city's insistence, Safeway was ultimately bounced from the

scaffolding contract at the bank building.

Meanwhile, the effort to take down the building moved slowly, as litigation

and fights over costs and responsibility dragged on.

By early 2006, though, Bovis, a multibillion-dollar global operation, had

won the giant contract to oversee the demolition of the bank building. Seven

contractors submitted bids to Bovis to do the demolition work under Bovis's

direction. Some, though, were deemed not qualified. Others dropped out.

That all opened the way for what was known as the John Galt Corporation.

"There was only one contractor willing to work on taking down the building,

as far as I know," Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on Tuesday.

Thus began the negotiations to allow Galt to go forward and tackle the

contaminated building. According to an agreement between the state and

Bovis, John Galt was allowed to take on Mr. Alvo and Mr. Adler, the two

former Safeway executives.

"A series of conditions were included in the contract at the direction of

L.M.D.C. that prevented questionable individuals from working at this job or

from having any association with John Galt," said Mr. Doctoroff, the deputy

mayor. "Once Galt and Bovis agreed to these stipulations, representatives on

the L.M.D.C. board from the city joined their state counterparts and voted

to approve the contract amendment to Bovis."

According to the agreement, portions of which were shared with a reporter,

neither John Galt nor Bovis could employ or use the services of any other

senior executives, principals or owners of Safeway Environmental or two

other companies, one of them Big Apple Wrecking.

The contractors also agreed to allow Mr. Alvo and Mr. Adler to cooperate

with the city's Department of Investigation in what was described in the

agreement - without elaboration - as an ongoing investigation.

The presence of Mr. Alvo and Mr. Adler on the 130 Liberty Street project was

not mentioned in the development corporation's March announcement but was

highlighted in a Daily News article on April 16, 2006.

John Galt, having done little, if any, work before the 130 Liberty Street

project, did actually try to win another project shortly after starting work

at the bank building.

It was the winning bidder for the demolition contract at the Bronx House of

Detention in the summer of 2006. But it failed to obtain approval through

the city's contract review process and lost the job because, officials say,

they learned that the city's Department of Investigation had opened an

investigation into John Galt.

"In July 2006, E.D.C. and the developer were made aware that D.O.I. had

initiated an investigation of Galt that might delay a background clearance,

so the developer instead used the next lowest bidder," said Janel Patterson,

a spokeswoman for the city's Economic Development Corporation.

Galt's work at the Deutsche Bank building, however, went on unaffected.

Deputy Mayor Doctoroff said the city's decision to deny Galt the Bronx

contract did not obligate the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to

re-examine whether Galt was the right company to be working at ground zero.

[IzzyEng4 427]

It's called CIDS Critical Dispatch Information System.

Thanks TB. I wasn't sure how much could be put into it.

[Guest]

Smells like politics.................

[smwells 7]

This whole incident shouldn't have happened. The City of NY dropped the ball !!

Can anyone explain why it takes 6+ years to tear down a building? The FF's lost there lives because of the cities inability to get the job done. Pre-plan or not, the building should not be standing.. Don't blame the people at the front line, they follow orders from the Brass... :angry:

I am betting one of two things will happen now:

A. the building will be gone by December07

B. The I35W freeway in MN will be rebuilt before this is finished... (I am betting on B !!)

Edited August 31, 2007 by DOC22

[Monty 35]

Maybe the unwritten policy, should have been made in to a written one? Or a memo on the training required or lack of training. In this day and age, unfortunate as it is - CYA. A lot of stuff is fine until the nasty stuff hits the fan.

newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-wtc0830,0,1033577.story?coll=ny_home_rail_headlines

Newsday.com

FDNY captain: I'm being made a scapegoat

BY ANN GIVENS

ann.givens@newsday.com

10:15 PM EDT, August 29, 2007

A Fire Department captain who was reassigned after officials said he failed to ensure regular inspections at the former Deutsche Bank building, shot back Wednesday, saying he is being made a scapegoat for what was a departmentwide policy to stay clear of the contaminated high-rise.

Capt. Peter Bosco -- who formerly was in charge of Engine Company 10 on Liberty Street, just steps from the building where the fatal fire occurred Aug. 18 -- said through his lawyer that he took his post long after the FDNY had stopped doing site visits at the building.

"It was a well-known, unwritten policy that it wasn't being inspected," said John Bosco, Bosco's brother, a Staten Island attorney. "Every member of that firehouse, both before he arrived and after, knew that."

Peter Bosco, 48, was given desk duty Monday as part of the investigation into the controversial inferno, in which two firefighters died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Deputy Chief Richard Fuerch and Battalion Chief John McDonald also were reassigned to department headquarters in Downtown Brooklyn for what officials said was their failure to have the building inspected or to draw up a plan in advance for fighting a fire there.

FDNY spokesman Jim Long said department officials still are investigating why inspections at the building halted.

"The department is looking into the reasons why inspections stopped at that location," he said.

In a statement released Wednesday, John Bosco asked why personnel at Engine 10 weren't given training or equipment for inspecting a hazardous building if the company was expected to inspect the former Deutsche Bank building every two weeks.

Glenn Corbett, a fire science professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, agreed that it would be odd for firefighters in the local stationhouse to make a decision as important as whether the former Deutsche Bank building would be inspected, and by whom.

"This, in my opinion, was not something that you just hand over to local people and say, 'Deal with it,'" Corbett said.

Both John Bosco and the president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, the union of the reassigned officers, yesterday questioned whether the decision not to inspect the building was made by someone who ranked higher than any of the men who were assigned to desk duty earlier this week.

In particular, UFOA President John McDonnell said a memo issued by Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office shows that at least two high-ranking FDNY officers toured the building on April 6, 2005, and should have been aware of the conditions there. McDonnell yesterday wrote a letter to Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta asking for the report that was generated from that tour.

John Bosco said some blame for the lack of inspections goes to high-ranking officials.

"This goes right to the top, and if they're the ones doing the investigation, I don't see how it can be fair," he said.

Copyright © 2007, The Associated Press

[Monty 35]

This whole incident shouldn't have happened. The City of NY dropped the ball !!

Can anyone explain why it takes 6+ years to tear down a building? The FF's lost there lifes because of it the cities inability to get the job done. Pre-plan or not, the building shouldn't be standing.. Don't blame the people at the front line, they follow orders from the Brass... :angry:

I am betting one of two things will happen now:

A. the building will be gone by December07

B. The I35W freeway in MN will be rebuilt before this is finished... (I am beting on B !!)

I'm sure Politics is the answer to yuor first question.

Regarding the second, if the contractor that fixed I-580 in California is involved in either - that's the one that will win. They rebuilt the burnt out bridge in 25 days instead of the 70 or so predicted by the state. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...MNG6EQ1IDG1.DTL