Why was the policy of non-inspection to safeguard the health and lives of his firefighter's unwritten?
Any football team from Pop Warner to the NFL has a playbook. So too does FDNY. It is there to provide guidance to firefighters. In it, the policies of FDNY are set. FDNY Captains do not create the plays for the FDNY playbook. The plays in the FDNY playbook are created by the "Top Brass" in the chain of command of the FDNY.
If a firefighter opened the FDNY playbook to learn FDNY's play about the inspection of toxic buildings what would be found? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. The FDNY did not have such a play. The "Top Brass" did not put such a play in the FDNY's playbook.
Did the "Top Brass" have enough time to create such a written policy to deal with the inspection of toxic buildings? Is the period from 9/11/2001 to now enough years, do you think?
There was a vacuum in written policy. There was a void. Is it any wonder that an unwritten policy would fill such a void? With a written policy being AWOL is it any surprise that an unwritten policy would fill the vacuum?
Captain Peter Bosco did not originate the unwritten policy of non-inspection for the purpose of safeguarding the lives and health of his fellow firefighters and himself. It already was well established and well known when Captain Bosco arrived at Engine 10. He inherited it. Its purpose struck Captain Bosco as reasonable. The absence of any Haz-mat uniforms and decontamination apparatus in Engine 10 only confirmed in his mind that FDNY did not want Engine 10 to enter 130 Liberty Street.