NY Toxic Tower Reminders of 9-11 Failures

Fire at WTC building exposes government lapses

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 17, 2008

Filed at 3:03 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Every two weeks, firefighters ascend a condemned, black-shrouded skyscraper, checking carefully marked exit signs, a rebuilt water supply system and wide-open corridors. They wear protective suits on floors still contaminated by toxic dust from the World Trade Center.

A year ago, more than 100 firefighters ran into the partially demolished building during a fire and had trouble finding their way out. Thick, plastic sheets meant to contain asbestos on some floors also held in smoke. Two firefighters died on the building's 14th floor when their oxygen supply ran out.

The Aug. 18, 2007, fire at the former Deutsche Bank tower across a street from ground zero exposed the incompetence of multiple government agencies assigned to near-daily inspections of the building, which was being dismantled. It also unmasked a questionable subcontractor and the Fire Department's failure to point out dozens of hazards -- including the cutting of a pipe meant to supply water to fire hoses -- before the blaze.

''The community had been raising red flags for months and sometimes years'' about the toxic tower, said environmental activist Kimberly Flynn. ''It's a mystery to us how you can have the number of inspectors that ... were practically living in that building and have that level of disaster.''
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