The New York Fire Department failed to visually inspect standpipes in the former Deutsche Bank building every 15 days as required by city rules for buildings being demolished, and had not done any inspections at the building since November 2006, according to records released yesterday by City Hall.
The standpipe system’s readiness to perform in a fire was last checked in November 1996, when the building was a functioning office building, and the system was filled with water and tested with pressure gauges, the Bloomberg administration said. Under fire codes, it is the building owner who must do such water, or hydrostatic, tests.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center stymied plans for the next water test of the system at the Deutsche Bank building, at 130 Liberty Street, in November 2001, and no further testing of the system was required because the building, mortally damaged, was likely to be demolished.
Investigators have zeroed in on the building’s standpipe as they investigate last Saturday’s fire and exactly what led to the deaths of two firemen, Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33, who were battling it. The standpipe was not operational before the fire broke out, according to an administration news release.
A standpipe valve between the basement of the first floor of the building was shut, and the network of pipes that is supposed to deliver water from fire trucks in the street to the standpipe system’s connections was compromised, officials said. Also, a piece of the standpipe system was missing altogether and was found lying in the building’s basement.
A city official said it appeared that the twice-monthly standpipe inspections that are mandatory for buildings under demolition were never done. It is unclear whether the potential environmental dangers due to toxins in the building kept firefighters from making the inspections, the official said.
Investigators in the office of Manhattan district attorney Robert M. Morgenthau visited the basement of the building yesterday and took photos.
One fire investigator said that the law enforcement officials were struck by how damaged the standpipe was. The investigator also said it appeared that workers had been staying in the basement overnight, in violation of an order to keep people out.
The records released by City Hall — a possibly incomplete list based on “paper records” that the Bloomberg administration has so far reviewed — offered a sober assessment of the Fire Department’s oversight at the building.
They also show that the department was aware of reports that the sprinkler system was not working. That failure is also under investigation. Buildings Department inspectors visited the skyscraper to approve the dismantling of each floor, and determined that the standpipe had been properly capped on the floor below.
A fire official noted yesterday that firefighters were in the building for reasons other than inspections, once when a pipe fell from the building last spring and crashed into a nearby firehouse. Fire personnel were also in the building in August when citations were issued to the contractors, the officials said.
The records also detailed a series of violations that have been issued by the Buildings Department against Bovis Lend Lease, the contractor overseeing the entire demolition project, and the subcontractor in charge of the demolition, the John Galt Corporation.
Bovis was cited on June 6 for a “large amount of combustible material/debris” accumulating. The subcontractor was cited on Aug. 1 because “burning operations,” were causing sparks to fly; and on Aug. 3 for an expired certificate to “store/use acetylene.”
Investigators are focusing on a discarded cigarette or faulty electrical panel as the likely cause of the blaze.
The last time fire officials from Engine 10 — which is in the skyscraper’s shadow — did a “regular surveillance inspection,” in the building was March 31, 2006, the records show.
The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, the State Legislature’s top Democrat, said he found the lack of recent water tests, “incredible. It’s amazing.”
“This is really a shock that even five years before Sept. 11, much less since Sept. 11, nobody checked that out,” said Mr. Silver, who represents residents of Lower Manhattan. “There are very serious concerns about that. The community has been overwhelmingly concerned about that building.”
The Buildings Department has conducted daily inspections of the floors under deconstruction since March 19, said Kate Lindquist, a department spokeswoman. The most recent inspection prior to the fire was the day before it broke out, she said, when an inspector confirmed that the standpipe was capped on the floor below deconstruction.
It is unclear when anyone from the Buildings or Fire Departments last inspected the standpipe system in the basement, where the broken pipe was found.
“That is one of the questions we are trying to answer,” said Ms. Lindquist. “We are reviewing our inspection reports.”
The law does not require the Buildings Department to conduct comprehensive testing of the standpipe system, she said. But a licensed site-safety manager is required to visually inspect the standpipe and its valves — to ensure they are connected properly — every day, the city official said.
