F.D.N.Y. to protect life and property at a superior level of excellence

Within Harsh Report on Fatal Fire, a Nod to Firefighters’ ‘Can-Do Attitude’

By AL BAKER
Published: August 22, 2008
Here is the Halligan tool: a lightweight crowbar-like device used by firefighters to pry open locked doors, smash windows and punch holes in walls.

It hangs on a truck’s side at the headquarters of Ladder Company 1 and Engine Company 7, on Duane Street in Lower Manhattan. And as Firefighter John McConnachie pulls it from the rig on Friday and lifts its 8 ½ pounds up to the height of his chest — like an extension of his arm — he explains its place in the city’s long history of firefighting ingenuity.

“Anytime something happens, we try to do something to make it safer and better,” said Firefighter McConnachie, 46, who has 15 years on the job. “It’s always a hairy situation — if it’s an explosion, a man under a train, there’s a gas leak, there’s a woman in a wheelchair with a broken elevator and we carry her up.”

The Halligan, a combination adze, pick and fork, is made for improvisation. Named for its inventor, Hugh A. Halligan, who joined the Fire Department in 1916, it is well-suited to the men and women who are expected to think fast in a crisis, even if they have to cut corners sometimes.

But while the tone was scolding, the subtext was admiring. The report said the firefighters’ risky actions embodied a culture of positive thinking. “The ‘can-do attitude’ has enabled the F.D.N.Y. to protect life and property at a superior level of excellence since the Fire Department’s inception,” it states.

Glenn P. Corbett, an associate professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said city firefighters were known for fearlessness and innovation. Each fire is unique, he said. Conditions can change in a heartbeat.

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Inquiry Lays Out Chain of Failures in High-Rise Fire

Inquiry Lays Out Chain of Failures in High-Rise Fire
By AL BAKER
Published: August 20, 2008
Contractors tearing down the contaminated former Deutsche Bank building in Lower Manhattan never had a formal demolition permit, even though they were undertaking one of the most complicated efforts ever to dismantle a skyscraper.


When a fire broke out last Aug. 18 at the tower, it took roughly 80 minutes to get water on the flames, in part because workers there waited some 13 minutes to call 911 and then gave firefighters inaccurate information about whether emergency equipment at the site was working.

And communication lapses further disrupted the firefighting response. Walkie-talkies failed, and critical calls for help went unheard. Men were lost in the confusion. One firefighter’s radio problems forced him to crawl to the building’s edge to report that two imperiled colleagues — Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33 — were trapped by stairwells that had been sealed off. Both men were killed.
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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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