FDNY Disciplines Seven Officers in Fatal Deconstruction Blaze

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta today announced that two fire officers have been permanently relieved of their commands and reprimanded, and five chief officers have also received reprimands, in connection with their failure to insure required inspections were performed at 130 Liberty Street prior to the August 2007 fire that took the lives of two firefighters, Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino. All seven officers agreed to accept these penalties in lieu of formal charges and an administrative trial before the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH).

Today’s announcement followed the release last week of a report by the City’s Department of Investigations (DOI) on the results of an investigation of the Fire and Buildings Departments’ actions leading up to the 130 Liberty Street fire. DOI’s administrative investigation began after a 16-month criminal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau that resulted in indictments against the John Galt Corporation and three of its workers. No criminal charges were filed against any City employees.

Once demolition of 130 Liberty Street began, Fire Department regulations required inspections of the building every 15 days. Fire officers in FDNY Division 1, Battalion 1, and Engine 10, who had responsibility for conducting inspections, failed to inspect 130 Liberty Street between the commencement of demolition in March 2007 and the fire on August 18.

Since the August 2007 fire, the Fire Department has made numerous changes to improve its inspectional program, including the following:

A new 25-member Construction, Demolition and Abatement (CDA) inspection unit has been created in the Bureau of Fire Prevention and is now performing inspections and enforcing safety regulations at CDA buildings.

The FDNY is engaged in a comprehensive overhaul of its field inspection program that will result in a shift from cyclical to risk-based inspections.

IBM is working under a four-year, $24 million contract to create a central database for all FDNY building inspection and safety information that will be shared with and connected to other city agency databases (DOB and DEP). The resulting technology will drive an inspection program that will prioritize based upon factors such as violations, hazards and other risks.

Fire Department field units have a new computerized system of logging and tracking CDA buildings in their respective administrative districts. The system has significantly improved compliance with required inspections.

Borough Commands – previously not directly involved in the inspectional activity and reporting structure – now have oversight of all field unit inspectional activity within their boroughs.

33 initiatives proposed by the Mayor’s CDA Task Force are being implemented. These wide-ranging initiatives have already improved procedures and information-sharing between the three agencies with jurisdiction over CDA buildings (FDNY, DOB and DEP).

Key changes include a ban on smoking at CDA sites; training of DEP inspectors on fire safety at abatement sites; and notifications by DEP and DOB to FDNY when either large/complex abatement permits or construction/demolition permits are issued.

FDNY increased by 50 percent the amount of time allotted for building inspections by field units, from 6 hours to 9 hours.

Training on inspectional duty has been upgraded in all ranks, from probationary firefighter to deputy chief.

Power point program on Operational Safety and Awareness at Deonstruction and Demolition Sites, HERE