New York - LODDs: Charges against the City of New York

Manhattan District Attorney considers charging the City of New York with negligence, inadequate Fire Department building safety inspections directly relating in Firefighter deaths.

The fire at the former Deutsche Bank tower at ground zero. Investigators uncovered a long list of missteps in its demolition

Firegezzer.com caught wind of some problems in New York in regards to a fire in a city owned building undergoing demolition, The fire resulted in a double FDNY LODD.

The lack of safety inspections by the New York Fire Department during the building’s demolition may have directly contributed to the Line of Duty Deaths of two Firefighters last Aug. 18.
It is being stated that the Manhattan District Attorney is considering seeking charges against the city of New York itself.

• The FDNY firefighters who died were trapped in the maze of the building
• The 41-story building, damaged in the 9/11 attack on the nearby World Trade Center, was a bit less than halfway through the complex beam-by-beam deconstruction and asbestos abatement process.
  
• Manhattan District Attorney has announced that his office is considering placing charges against the City of New York and staff as an entity for the August, 2007, fire in the former Deutsche Bank building that killed two firefighters.
• Aides to the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, have called the investigation of last summer’s deadly fire at the former Deutsche Bank building at ground zero one of the most complex their office has ever undertaken.
• Prosecutors from the Rackets Bureau have sifted through more than three million documents and interviewed about 100 people
• Charging that negligence by city agencies — from the Buildings Department’s failure to ensure that a vital standpipe was maintained and tested at the former bank tower, to the lack of safety inspections by the Fire Department during the building’s demolition — may have directly contributed to the deaths of the two firefighters last Aug. 18.
• FDNY officials were directed to meet with city lawyers before they were interviewed by prosecutors, a direction they ignored.
• Possible Mafia ties and sham corporations allegedly involved in bidding process.
  

Check it out at:
Fire Gezzer article: Charges May Be Levied In Deutsche Bank Fatal Fire
Source Article: The New York Times - HERE.

Photo credit: Eric M. Hazard/Associated Press