Outrage!
Deutsche Bank Tower Fire by 24gotham on Flickr.
They knew! As if the sad tale of incompetence, negligence, and bad decision-making that led to the death of two New York City firefighters could not get worse, the New York Post today revealed a 2005 memo written by Battalion Chief William Siegel to Division 1 Commander Richard Fuerch that drew attention to the problematic issue of inspecting the toxin-filled structure and offered possible organizational plans in the event of an incident during the deconstruction. The Post also has links to page one and page two of the memo. In the meantine, three high-ranking FDNY officers have been relieved of their duties pending the results of the multiple investigations into the tragedy.
Incomprehensible! The Daily News also has the story of a former sub-contractor for Bovis Lend Lease who as apparently chastised for wearing a personal protective asbestos-mask and watched her co-workers down asbestos particles along with their Dunkin’ Donuts.
Shame! This story seems to get worse day by day (Mayor Bloomberg’s piecemeal and ambiguous statements to the city are no comfort), and we should be praying for the day when the abominable truth about this story–from the seemingly shady dealings that brought us an Ayn Rand-dummy corporation to the bureaucratic incompetence of our City agencies to the poor decisions on that fateful day–comes seeping out of the burnt rubble. Until then, John Schiumo over at NY1’s The Call has got the right idea and is letting all ten of his fingers do the talking.
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[...] The latest news from the Deutsche Bank building in Lower Manhttan is–guess what–the various stakeholders can’t get their act together to even restart the deconstruction. According to Crain’s, deconstruction was planned to restart in the beginning in November, but now the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation will not commit to a new timeline for the work. LMDC chairman said that the “situation was “complicated” and “things took a little more time.” The tragic fire that ripped through part of the building in August took the lives of two firefighters and brought to light the dangerous and incomprehensible working conditions maintained by the the company overseeing the demoliton. It also brought to light that the contractor leading the demolition, the John Galt Corporation of the Bronx, was a front for a bunch of smaller seemingly shady companies that had no experience in deconstructing a building the size of the Deutshce Bank building at 130 Liberty Street. The New York Times reported that: 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. [...]
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