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Deutsche Bank Fire Coverage Roundup: From Standpipes to Contractor's Previous Problems
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 26, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 26, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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All four of the local papers devote attention to the Detusche Bank building fire, which took place 8 days ago and took the lives of two firefighters. Here's a roundup:
- Newsday reports that state politicians suggest hiring retired firefighters to inspect buildings for things like "poor sprinklers, blocked doorways and malfunctioning standpipes." The Deutsche Bank building's standpipe had a 20-foot piece missing, and the FDNY had not kept up with inspections to the under-demolition building as it should have. State Senator Eric Adams said, "Because they're retired, they may not be able to physically put out fires, but they still have the expertise." And City Council member Hiram Monserrate wants FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta to testify about the FDNY's tactics.
- Speaking of standpipes, the NY Times examines the history and engineering of standpipes. You've seen those pipes on the sides of buildings, with signs like "Standpipe." It turns standpipes originated during the 1860s, when the city's buildings started to grow taller and, as John Jay College professor of fire science Glenn Corbett explains, "the philosophy of firefighting evolved," because before then "most fires were fought from the outside."
- The questionable practices of Bovis Lend Lease, the contractor in charge of dismantling the Deutsche Bank, are revisited by the Post. Specifically, BLL was building a new children's hospital next to NY Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia when mold-infested dust escape to patients rooms and five children died. The mother of a three-year-old who died in 2001 said that when she heard about the fire, she thought, "My God, it's happened again. Somebody else has gotten hurt or died because of their lack of following protocol and directions and doing things the proper way."
- And the Daily News profiles the fire chief who yelled on the radio during the fire, "Listen, I want a roll call, do we have a roll call finished up there? I don't give a s--- about the building, I give a s--- about the guys. Do we know who's missing?" Assistant Chief Thomas Galvin, who was the commander, is the "head of the FDNY's Bureau of Training, a survivor of the World Trade Center catastrophe and, in its aftermath, an instrumental force in rebuilding the Fire Department."
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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