By Julie Shapiro
The Department of Buildings inspectors who failed to uncover unsafe conditions in the Deutsche Bank building prior to the fatal 2007 fire are still on the job.
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau called the Buildings inspectors “inexperienced” in his recent report on the deaths of two firefighters in the contaminated tower. The Buildings inspectors never donned the protective gear they would have needed to find the many safety violations in the building, including a 42-foot gap in the standpipe, which left firefighters without water during the fire.
Despite these shortfalls, the D.O.B. said Friday that the current inspectors are “substantially the same” as those who are inspecting the tower today. They have since received 30 hours of federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration training and 40 hours of site safety training, said Christopher Santulli, Manhattan borough commissioner for the D.O.B.
Santulli did not say Friday why the department kept the inspectors rather than replacing them.
The revelation about the Buildings inspectors came during a hearing City Councilmember Alan Gerson held Friday on the past and future of the Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty St., which is currently being cleaned so it can be demolished.
During the hearing, David Emil, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which owns the building, said the schedule for demolition has slipped yet again.
Under the best-case scenario, the building will come down by the middle of October of this year. But if the contractors find asbestos in the fireproofing on steel in two of the stairways, they will need another six to seven weeks to abate it, pushing the deadline the beginning of December. Bad weather could delay the project even further, said Frank Voci, a senior vice president at contractor Bovis Lend Lease. Voci used the word “hopeful” in describing the timeline.
The 26-story building is currently cleaned down through the eighth floor and will be entirely cleaned by early April. Workers are also removing the facade of the building, which is complete down to the 18th floor and should be finished by the end of April. Then, demolition can begin.
Based on the D.A.’s investigation into the August 2007 fire, Gerson grilled Emil on the many missteps at the building, including smaller fires that ought to have raised red flags.
Several weeks before the fatal fire, URS Corp., the L.M.D.C.’s representative on the site, told the L.M.D.C. that Bovis could not be trusted to keep the building safe, according to the D.A. At Friday’s hearing, Gerson asked Emil if URS was right about Bovis.
“I’m not sure we’re going to offer a comment on our opinion at that time,” Emil said after a lengthy silence. “I think we have learned from the past and made changes,” he said, referring to the more robust safety plans put in place after the fire.
After the hearing, Emil declined to say whether the L.M.D.C. had done everything it could have done to prevent the fire.
LOOK FOR MORE EXTENSIVE COVERAGE OF THE REVELATIONS FROM THE CITY COUNCIL HEARING ON THE FATAL DEUTSCHE BANK FIRE TO BE POSTED JAN. 15 AND IN THE NEXT HARD COPY EDITION OF DOWNTOWN EXPRESS.
