Topical Links

 

The Chernobyl Firefighters

  • The Chernobyl Firefighters Speak Out
  • Marie Antoinette said "Let them eat cake" and provoked a revolution.  "Let them hold their breath" Mayor Bloomberg tells NYC Firefighters as his recommended method for inspecting a toxic building.

Former FDNY Commissioner Thomas Von Essen

  • FDNY Commissionr Thomas Von Essen Speaks out
  • "Somebody really dropped the ball," former FDNY Commissioner Thomas Von Essen said. The captain of the engine (company) probably had no ability to inspect that building it was so contaminated," Von Essen said. Von Essen defended Capt. Peter Bosco, who was removed from command of Engine 10 after it was learned that the FDNY wasn't inspecting the building.

FDNY Ten House

  • FDNY Ten House Speaks Out
  • FDNY"The members of Ten House wish to express their support of all the officers who were disciplined by the FDNY and relieved of their command. We feel that this is a political shell game to scapegoat these fine officers. The Deutsche Bank fire was a tragedy and the subsequent disciplinary actions taken by the FDNY are a travesty of justice and an insult to the brave men who made the supreme sacrifice.
    FDNYWe ask that all visitors to our website take the time to get all of the facts. Please follow the links to the articles listed below. Say a prayer for FF Robert Beddia & FF Joseph Graffagnino and their families and hope that the truth is allowed to come out and Captain Peter Bosco, Battalion Chief John McDonald, and Deputy Chief Richard Feurch are exonerated."

Deputy Chief Richard Alles

  • FDNY Deputy Chief Richard Alles speaks out
  • With the deadly fire just over a month old there are apparently still no new plans for fighting fires in toxic buildings.  "I'm shocked," said Deputy Chief Richard Alles. Alles was stunned by a disclosure he says was made by Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and his top aides at a behind-the-scenes meeting Monday night when the chiefs reportedly put Scoppetta and his men on the spot. They asked how they should attack a fire like the one at Deutsche Bank that resulted in the deaths of two firemen. The answer?  "They are in the process of designing plans ... one month after the fire," Alles said.  Scoppetta and his top aides reportedly revealed the lack of plans at a private session Monday night, with some 50 chiefs assigned to Division I in lower Manhattan. They told their union reps what happened. Alles says a lot of projects are reportedly affected.  "One hundred to 200 buildings ... mind-boggling," he said.

Firefighter Peter D'Ancona

  • Firefighter Peter D'Ancona Speaks Out
  • a recently retired fireman who worked next to the World Trade Center says his former colleagues shouldn't be blamed for not doing inspections, because they weren't even allowed inside the building.  Peter D'Ancona, who worked at Ladder 10 from 2001 to 2006, said he responded to falling debris at the building on two occasions in the last two years. But afterwards, he and the members of his ladder company were ordered by two different chiefs to never go into the building again, because of the toxic heavy metals, asbestos and black mold inside. "I read the paper and it said that the local firehouse didn't do the B.I. on the building and I turned around and said to the guy standing next to me, 'that's not true, we were told not to go into the building,'" said D'Ancona. "If I can't go in the building for an emergency situation, what makes you think I can go in that building to do building inspection?"
  • Firefighter Peter D'Ancona Speaks out some more
  • They worried more about the air they were breathing and the toxic skyscraper next door. For years after the triumphant reopening of the Ten House in 2003, firefighters there voiced concerns about the potentially hazardous trade center ash that had blanketed the neighborhood and contaminated the Deutsche Bank office tower looming over their headquarters. Their suspicions grew when a few of them began to suffer respiratory ailments.  Fire officials at the time said they didn't know why the inspections weren't being done, but hinted that it may have had something to do with environmental concerns. That suggestion now appears to have been an understatement.  In recent years, several firefighters stationed at the Ten House were forced to retire after developing respiratory problems _ guys like Terence Rivera, who took a lung full of dust on Sept. 11, but also newer firefighters like Bundy Chung, who didn't join the department until 2002. A union delegate arranged for an environmental attorney take dust samples from inside the firehouse looking for toxins. Joel Kupferman, of the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project, said some of the firefighters worried about whether toxins at the tower were escaping the protective seal. "They felt that no one was out there taking care of them," Kupferman said. "It wasn't just that it was because their firehouse was next door. It was because they were the ones who would have to go into that building and get everyone out if there was a fire." D'Ancona said he got the word that the building was off limits after having to respond to check out falling glass. The firehouse, he said, wasn't equipped with hazardous materials suits. Firefighters wore their air tanks on the call, but afterward, he said, irritated commanders told the company to stay out of the building. Chung tells a similar story. "I remember being at a scaffolding fire, and after we put it out, were told that there were high levels of asbestos there. We had to fill out a form saying we had been exposed," he said. "After that, there were chiefs who told us never to go into that building."

Firefighter Bundy Chung

Fire Expert Glenn Corbett

  • Fire Expert Glenn Corbett speaks out

  • Because of the level of toxicity in the building, Mr. Corbett said, it was "absolutely insane" to use plastic and plywood during the asbestos-abatement work, even though that is fairly common in other buildings where such work is done. "Why weren't they using a lot more sheetrock or gypsum board?" he asked. "They did this on the cheap. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation bears the ultimate responsibility, then Bovis and Galt. But this was not a building that the upper management of the Fire Department should have treated like just another building. The only logical people who should have been in this building [from the FDNY] were members of the Special Operations Command, who have Haz-Mat training, either as a special detail or on overtime. This building was so unique, and so obviously a problem, that it had to go to the upper echelons of the department."

  • Glenn Corbett, Fire Engineering, 9/18/2007, Deutsche Bank Fire
  • You could not build a new high-rise with plywood walls and partitions - why does it make sense to allow it in a building under demolition? Why does the US EPA allow such dangerous practices? Why does the EPA think that the use of plywood is even a good containment method when fire is a distinct possibility?

Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy

  • Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy speaks out
  • UFA Leader: FDNY Probe a Whitewash.  We're hoping, and we believe that it's happening now, that subpoenas will be issued to all the top commanders in the Fire Department, that they will be brought in by the [Manhattan District Attorney] and put under oath so that they can get the real truth." It's become clear again the New York City Fire Department cannot conduct an investigation in the Deutsche Bank Building tragedy," Mr. Cassidy said. "They have not to date interviewed anyone about the pre-fire conditions. They have not interviewed any of the top staff as it relates to what they knew, when they knew it prior to the fatal fire." Mr. Cassidy said top department officials informed the union that it was not investigating pre-fire procedures and conditions. "The Fire Commissioner is ultimately responsible for the day-to-day operations of the New York City Fire Department," Mr. Cassidy said. "And he didn't get this job yesterday. Two years ago nobody can pretend they didn't know what the Deutsche Bank was."

Haz Mat Specialist Helen Rocos

  • Haz Mat Specialist Helen Rocos Speaks Out
  • They told us they got rid of the asbestos, but as I'm digging, I'm thinking, 'How did they magically get rid of the asbestos, but still leave all this healthy dirt behind?'" said Rocos, 57, a tough-talking certified asbestos handler with haz-mat training.After lunch the first day, Rocos came back to work wearing an asbestos mask. She said her Bovis Lend Lease supervisor was furious. "He yelled, 'Helen! Take that mask off your face! You are spooking everybody, spooking the people from the medical examiner's office!'" Rocos recalled. "I said, 'No!' I said I doubted they could clean the asbestos on the roof and leave all this other dirt untouched. You had people picking through the dirt for bones, then getting up and eating a Dunkin' Donut, licking their fingers," she said. "It was insane."When she balked at taking off her mask, the Bovis supervisor called her a "loudmouth" and a "troublemaker" in front of the rest of the crew, though he later suggested she wear a cloth mask as a compromise, she said.  When she and other workers were cleaning asbestos inside the building, they couldn't wash up sometimes because decontamination units lacked water, she said. Live power lines snaked across floors where asbestos was being removed. Simple things like working toilets could not be found. The fight over the mask was the last straw, she said, so she quit. Days later, by the end of April, the Environmental Protection Agency had suspended the search for bone fragments because the roof was "not properly cleaned" and asbestos particles were discovered in the dust, officials said.

 

Uniformed Fire Officers Association President John McDonnell

Community Board 1

 

The National Environmental Health Association

Industrial Hygenists

 US EPA

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation

  • NYC Hazards: HazMats/Chemical Spills & Radiation
  • If exposed, remove outer layer of clothes, separate yourself from them, and wash yourself. In some circumstances, after being exposed to hazardous materials, it may be necessary to be “decontaminated.” Specially trained emergency personnel will perform decontamination procedures, which may include the removal of personal items and cleansing of exposed areas of the body. They will provide for medical attention if necessary.