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Deutsche Bank Building's Water Failed in
Deadly Blaze (Update3)

By Henry Goldman

Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- A faulty water-supply system plagued
efforts to douse an Aug. 18 fire that killed two firefighters in the
former Deutsche Bank AG building near New York City's World Trade
Center site, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office said.

City, county and state officials separately said they are in the
process of investigating the blaze.

The building didn't have a working standpipe, a vertical pipe
that runs through high-rise buildings and supplies water for fire
hoses. Its sprinkler system was also inoperable, Bloomberg said in a
statement. The fire department plans to cite Bovis Lend Lease,
demolition contractor for the building, with a violation for failing
to keep the standpipe in working order.

``The FDNY's investigation into how the standpipe was disabled is
continuing,'' the department said in a statement released last
night. ``The Fire Department is also investigating why the
building's sprinkler system was not operational.''

Steve Cassidy, representing the city's 8,900 firefighters as
president of the Uniform Firefighters Association, called upon state
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to launch a separate probe of the
fire, saying ``the New York Fire Department is incapable of
investigating itself.''

Cuomo complied this afternoon, putting out a statement saying his
office's ``Public Integrity and Environmental Protection Bureaus
have begun reviewing the facts and circumstances surrounding the
fire.''

Manhattan District Attorney

Earlier today, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau
announced his office would open a criminal investigation, using the
findings of the fire department and other city agencies. Cuomo said
Morgenthau's investigation would take precedence in the event
criminal charges were warranted.

The former 41-story Deutsche Bank building has been vacant since
Sept. 11, 2001, when a terrorist attack caused the south tower of
the World Trade Center to collapse on it. Now at 26 stories, workers
are dismantling the building floor by floor to make way for a $2
billion tower planned by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Deutsche Bank sold
the building a few years ago.

Bloomberg said today the city's investigations would look into
the fire's cause, how the standpipe got shut off and who was
responsible to ensure that fire codes were enforced inside the
building.

Fire Department Procedures

A separate analysis would examine what fire department procedures
if any might have saved the lives of Robert Beddia, 53, of Staten
Island, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33, of Brooklyn. The two worked out
of the same firehouse, Engine 24-Ladder 5, that lost 11 firefighters
on Sept. 11.

``At this point, there's no reason for anybody to think in terms
of criminal charges or anything else,'' Bloomberg told reporters
today during a news conference at Gracie Mansion.

``We are using every possible resource to find out how this fire
started and what went wrong,'' Bloomberg said yesterday. The mayor
is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.

The seven-alarm fire, which injured at least 50, raged as
firefighters struggled to get water to the site. Hundreds of
firefighters responded to the flaming building, which sent pillars
of smoke into the sky over lower Manhattan.

Firefighters had to enter the vacant burning building and put
down the blaze, even though the structure was in the process of
being demolished, the mayor said.

`Safety Risk'

``The fire department doesn't know for sure there's no one
working in the building,'' Bloomberg said. ``There's a safety risk
in terms of letting the fire go out of control as to the structural
integrity of the building, and in this case it could release
contaminants into the air.''

Swaths of polyurethane, meant to keep asbestos and other debris
from drifting off the site, and sheets of plywood made the fire more
difficult to extinguish, said Errol Cockfield, a spokesman for the
building's owner, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.

The standpipe failure forced firefighters to hoist hoses from the
ground with rope, complicating efforts, officials said.

``In the basement of the structure, Fire Marshals observed that a
section of the standpipe was not attached and was lying on the floor
nearby,'' the department said. The standpipe must be operational
before the city will permit Bovis to continue, the buildings
department said.

Fire department officials said Bovis's contracts with the Lower
Manhattan Development Corp. required that a standpipe be in working
order, as did the contractor's health and safety plan.

Stop-Work Order

The city's Building Department issued a stop-work order at the
site Aug. 19, permitting only repairs required to keep the building
safe until investigations are complete. The Lower Manhattan
Development Corp., which acquired the building in 2004, said that
could take a month.

The development corporation gave Bovis Lend Lease a two- year,
$75 million contract to demolish the building. Bovis subcontracted
the work to John Galt Corp., which has received previous violations
at the building. In May, a 15-foot section of steam pipe fell from
the Deutsche Bank building through the roof of a neighboring
firehouse, injuring two firefighters.

Employee Interviews

The department said that fire marshals believe the fire started
on the south side of the building's 17th floor, an area with an
elevator used as an exit for workers after they had gone through a
decontamination station.

``Marshals have also spoken to eyewitnesses who've stated that
workers would smoke and extinguish cigarettes in this area,'' the
fire commissioner's report said. There was also some electrical
equipment at that location, including hot water heaters for the
decontamination showers.

Marshals are interviewing numerous employees of Bovis Lend Lease
and John Galt.

Bovis Lend Lease and John Galt representatives were unreachable
yesterday after working hours. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
is a joint city-state public corporation created after the trade
center disaster to finance and oversee recovery of the city's
downtown. Its representatives also were unreachable.

Inspectors from the city's Buildings Department and forensic
engineers have determined the building is structurally sound and not
in danger of collapse, the mayor's office said. The fire damaged
floors 13 to 18 of the building's 26 remaining stories. The
department's oversight extends only to floors 22 and up that have
been approved for demolition, the mayor's office said.

The Department of Environmental Protection reported that 183 air
samples after the fire from 22 locations adjacent to the building's
location and on surrounding blocks tested negative for asbestos.

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Goldman in New York
at [email-masked]
.
Last Updated: August 21, 2007 17:46 EDT

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