Sooyeon's progress memo 2 -

Werner Schmidt, Public information officer at United Nations said :

The UN is international territory. It is applying New York City building, safety and fire codes, but on a voluntary basis.
There are basically three areas in which the UN is addressing the violations of the NYC fire safety code which were stated by the FDNY in 2006 and 2007:

• the UN has installed hundreds of smoke detectors;
• the UN by July will complete installing compartmentalization between the buildings resp. between parts of the buildings of the Headquarters complex, so in case of an incident the affected area can be isolated from other areas and smoke does not get transported throughout the complex by ventilation);
• the UN is training a number of their safety and security officers as FDNY-certified fire directors.

Paul Zachary, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), whose office is on 36^th floor, said :

“The building is really old. In side, particularly, we can’t renovate very easily. Imagine, house from 1950s, hasn’t been that much renovation. Then, make it a 39 stores skyscraper. It’s not very comprehensive changes no fire training”

Asked if he had any fire safety training or been in fire alarm test, “I don’t know how the fire alarm sounds like. I’m not even sure we even actually have them. I also don’t see the boxes, like red boxes with hammers and stuff. I don’t see those in the building.” He also added, “After 9/11, I’m not sure if there has been any physical changes, but definitely, there has been mental one, which is, I feel, the concern about working in that building in particular. It’s such an iconic building like WTC."

Wiltermuth Draft Story-FDNY Fire Inspection Schedule

In a racketing up of the tensions, Stephen J. Cassady, President of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said the Fire Department was guilty of improper practice and retaliation, following an incident whereby UFA Health and Safety Officer, William Romaka, was excluded from certain Fire Department meetings. Cassady said Romaka was excluded due to union activity.

The firefighter’s union and Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta have been engaged in a bitter dispute following the August 18, 2007, fire at the former Deutsche Bank building, which killed firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino.
An investigation following the incident concluded that the two firefighters were left in the building for over an hour without water, due to dismantled fire connections and a broken standpipe in the basement.

In February, Beddia’s sister, Barbara Beddia Crocco, filed suit in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan against the LMDC and several private companies in charge to the Bank’s demolition. According to the New York Times, “the conditions created by the defendants were too much for Beddia to withstand, and he was killed by toxic smoke, unable to escape because of the stairwell barricades erected by the defendants.”

Five days following the fatal blaze, the UFA disclosed the lack of proper Fire Department inspections at the forlorn site, which had not been inspected since March 2006. Cassidy said Scoppetta was made aware of the dangerous Deutsche Bank conditions as far back as three years prior, when Chief William Siegel recommended a specific fire and inspection plan for the site.

Three months prior to the blaze, while the Bank was undergoing demolition, a 22-foot length of steel pipe fell from the building onto the roof of local Fire Engine 10/Ladder 10. While no one was injured at the time, the accident failed to produce requested safety measures at the site.

Mayor Bloomberg weighed in on Sept. 8 and three Chief firefighters were reassigned and the 15-day inspection schedule came under close scrutiny. In November, Cassady said the Commissioner knew the Deutsche Bank was a toxic mess and that the inspection cycle was unfeasible, but that month, Scoppetta’s added a third day to the firefighter’s building by-monthly inspections.

In January, Battalion Chief John J. McDonnell told the New York Times that it would be impossible to check every construction or demolition project under the 15-day schedule, even though the city had increased the time from six to nine hours each week, in which firefighters are given to perform inspections.

Cassady said, “In an obvious attempt to gloss over their 
failures, the Department leadership has decided to add a 
third day of building inspections to an already 
overburdened firefighter's workload.” “This fiasco is called 
’Building Inspection Safety Program (BISP),’” he said.

The backdrop to this ongoing battle is a fight for high-rise safety and accountability in the shadows of the
September 11, 2001, when the lives of 341 firefighters were taken.

While New York City is experiencing its largest construction boom in decades, fire chiefs said the inspection rule has been one of the hardest to enforce for decades. One persistent issue is that fire commanders are not officially notified when the city issues permits for construction or demolition. Instead, local engine companies drive around to determine which buildings need to be inspected.

On December 12, the City Council’s Fire and Criminal Justice Services Committee requested an oversight hearing with respect to the Fire Department’s building inspection program. The Committee said they wanted to determine the staffing levels of these units, the training and qualifications of the inspectors, the equipment available to the inspectors, and the universe, scope and frequency of inspections being conducted.

The Committee inquired how the level of inspections had varied in recent years, the scope and frequency of the inspections being conducted, how and why the decision was made to increase the level of inspections and the impact that decision may have had on response times and safety. Scoppetta testified that fire response times had actually decreased since the new inspection plan was instituted, but provided no supporting data or statistics.

In December, Cassidy said the number of fire engines on building inspections increased by 50 percent. While the acknowledging the Fire Department’s responsibility to manage the City’s building inspection program, Cassidy said, “Every firefighter knows that his response times are negatively impacted.”

Glen Corbett, a professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the New York City fire department’s 15-day building inspection schedule has since become a hot-button issue. Days after the blaze, he said, “due to the scrutiny of this building, the lack of a pre-fire plan is unbelievable.”

Cassady said, “Rest assured, the Department’s actions will not stop the UFA from shining the light of truth on the Department when their policies endanger our members.”

UFA Ltr re Failure of FDNY Leadership: http://www.ufalocal94.org/pdf/db11_20.pdf

City Council Oversight Hearing re: FDNY Building Inspection Program: Dec. 12, 2007
http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/attachments/81351.htm?CFID=1569427&CFTOKEN=55706348

NYT: Feb, 14, 2008 Beddia lawsuit: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/nyregion/14deutsche.html?_r=1&scp=9&sq=deutsche+bank+fire&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Quotes

Here are some quotes from a retired firefighter:
"Motorola radios were ineffective on 9/11 and many firefighters in North Tower never heard the call to evacuate after the South tower had collapsed."
"Firefighters are more than willing to adapt to any new technology.Firefighters are more than willing to adapt to any new technology."
"Fires in hi rise buildings are dangerous. Studies are being conducted to help in fire safety in these buldings,, but we are in the still equally in danger before 9/11 and thereafter."

Air Quality: Mike Weiss progress memo

I am trying to find out what the EPA did wrong on air monitoring at 9/11, and if they have taken measures to correct this. When then tell me “yes, we have improved all our procedures,” I will ask them for details.

A lot of the air monitoring problems from 9/11 appear to have come from a mis-diagnoses of the potentially harmful effects of concrete and glass particles in the air – an unforeseen circumstance, when most monitoring was looking for asbestos fibers. This brings up the issue of whether the current air monitoring (which has reverted back to EPA standards for non-emergency situations) is flexible enough to respond to the new situation of intense construction-related air hazards in lower Manhattan.

I have spoken with several scientists, doctors, government officials, and Joel Kupferman, a lawyer with the NY Environmental Law & Justice Project. There is also an event this Sunday sponsored by the group “9/11 Environmental Action” titled The 9/11 Community Health Forum. The event, at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, states that “affected workers, residents and students will be joined by 9/11-experienced doctors & elected officials.” I’m going.

Some cool quotes: Lynda Caspe, a resident of 150 Franklin Street (just below Canal Street) hired Joel Kupferman to look into her problem of accumulated 9/11 dust on the roof of her building. Through a series of comical blunders by the city’s DOH and then the EPA, her building was finally cleaned by the EPA. When asked if she felt the government could now be trusted to truthfully monitor air quality, she said, “I believed George Bush when he said there were weapons of mass destruction – so you know there’s something wrong with my mind!”

Also, there is an obscure program of Cornell University that is based in New York City called the Cornell Cooperative Extension. The director of the program, Gretchen Ferenz, explained how the program was established by an ancient law that mandates a land-grant program from a college in every county of New York State to run educational programs related to the use of land or the environment. As a research project, the program just happened to want to measure the effect that trees and other landscaping were having on particulate matter (air particles) and found that trees had very little effect at all. Part of their research had them comparing their air samples with those of the State’s air monitoring stations and found discrepancies – specifically, there was much more particulate matter in the air at ground level (where people breathe) than there was on the rooftops where the State’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation monitoring stations are located. Ferenz was adamant about not making any speculations about human health consequences, “what the toxins are, I can’t speak to that,” but said “the levels are different. Let’s just say the rooftop levels are consistent and don’t change, but what we found at intersections, when the light changes – zoooooom, the readings are off the chart.”

Progress Memo #2-Quotes UFA Calls Deutsche Bank a "Toxic Mess" alleges top leadership negligence

...and and charges the Fire Commissioner and Chief with "shoddy performance."

STEPHEN J. CASSIDY
President of UFA said:

-"Chief Siegel's recommendations were totally ignored by the FDNY
"leadership" at 9 Metro Tech. Yet, no one had the
foresight to develop an alternate plan to protect our
firefighters should a serious fire take place in the
building."

-"public of a recommendation by former Chief of Department Peter Hayden made in March 2005
that the Department acquire a helicopter to help fight
hi-rise fires"

-"in an obvious attempt to gloss over their
failures, the Department leadership has decided to add a
third day of building inspections to an already
overburdened firefighter's workload. This fiasco is called
"Building Inspection Safety Program (BISP)".

-"It is clear that a separately trained and staffed Task Force is
necessary to effectively address the need for proper fire
inspections. Not only is this so-called "new" program an
inadequate response to the need for better and thorough
building inspections, it will also most certainly increase
response times to fires and other emergencies. "

The Deutsche Bank Fire: Failure of FDNY
Leadership - The UFA's Effort to Keep
the Public and Our Membership Informed

Nov 20, 2007 Ltr to Members and the Public:

http://www.ufalocal94.org/pdf/db11_20.pdf

progress memo 2 - Giegerich

I am making good progress with my final story. I found a person who was able to escape the 68th floor of the WTC becuase he had been thoroughly trained prior to the attacks and he told a vivid story of his experience on 9/11, and spoke about how important training is and actually said, "It is very safe for me to say that I am only alive today becuase of the training me and my colleagues received prior to 9/11." Woohoo. Color! His name is Greg Trevor and he was the media director for Port Authority and is now holding a similar office at Rutgers University.

I've also attended a fire safety directors training course where the fire fighter, Joe Cunningham, led a four hour class (one of five the course consists of) to certify building personnel, who are mostly security guards, to become safety directors of their buildings. They will be responsible for knowing what to do in case of a fire on any floor: how to communicate with the people on the floor and how to communicate efficiently with the fire department in order to act quickly and safely. Most of the 12 people there were enthusiasitc and recognized the need for such boring certification classes and were happy to be learning how best to protect the people in their buildings.

Cunningham is going to hook me up with some people he knows that have saved lives and fought fires thanks to good training.

A source at the fire department has provided me with some statisitcs on buildings in NY and how many have already submitted Emergency Action Plans to the fire department. According to the reliable source, there are about 1800 buildings who require EAPs to be filed with the fire department. Approximately 900 have submitted plans and only 370 have submitted plans that have been accepted by FDNY. EAPs were mandated in 2006, why is it taking so long for buildings to come up with plans? Becuase they take money, time (about three months), experts, and need to go through an approval process. Details of the process will be covered in my story, to a degree that informs but does not cause drowsiness.

I've also learned that some people in buildings near the steam pipe explosion in 2006 knew to stay in their offices becuase of possible toxins in the air due to training prior to the incident. I am looking into trying to speak to one or more of these people.

The story is taking the form of how training saves lives. Thousands of people lost their lives on 9/11, training or no training made no difference in many of those deaths, but, as Greg Trevor explained, training did save his life and the lives of many on his floor, almost all on his floor. Real changes have been made on a number of levels that are helping to ensure that people can deal with any type of emergency that can happen in hi-rises in NYC.

I think I need to do a little more work to find some statistics and have had a number of sources from the International Association of Emergency Managers, BOMA, FEMA, and the New York State Emergency Managers Office, call me back. I need to return their calls and that should complete my interviews and virtually all my research. I need to find out how much a fine for failing to submit an EAP is, how much emergency management consultants charge customers for the creation of EAP plans, how many buildings, total, need EAPs (from BOMA), and I need to better understand the different classes of buildings, and learn exactly what makes a Class E building- commerical hi-rise buildings, or hotels or motels.

Mo Progress

I have been in contact with Peg O'Brien, who is the Public Affairs Associate for the National Fire Protection Association. She is going to hook me up with someone in the association who can help me with my project.

Molly's Project Progress Memo

I have narrowed my project to fire fighting gear...which is a big focus with lots of things to cover STILL: AEDs, air products, air management, ambulances, fire apparel, fire bags/cases, fire batteries, breathing apparatus, burnover protection, CO screening products, defibrillator, emergency lighting, silicone masks, fire vehicles, turnout gear, thermal imaging, storage systems, spinal/head immobilizer, sirens/alarms, simulation products, ropes, rescue stretchers, entry tools, radios, fire pumps, protective eye wear, fire nozzles, hoses, hoods, helmets, gloves, gas masks/detection, foam equipment, flashlights...
(to name a FEW)
To narrow it further, I have scheduled an interview with Vincent Forras, Co-Founder of the Gear Up Foundation, who are an organization inspired by 9/11 to bring equipment to fire fighters.

Alls good on the gadgets front.

Gariiiiiiib Progress Memo 4/03

Hey all,

Progress recently has not been great, but I'll try and cover what I'm working towards right now:

1. Finding an injured worker. The union-side option has not been working (i.e., for the past three months - they give me a very friendly run-around every time I ask) so I'm restaring my quest to find an injured hi-rise worker via personal injury law firms. The first time I tried this 2 months ago it wasn't a great success, but I didn't push the issue or go after more than 2 firms.

2. Getting more context from the opposition to the current safety regime. I already have a dialogue open with Council member Mendez from The Village, and I'm working on Councilmember Dilan from Brownsville. Both are on the Safety and Buildings committee. Mendez has already expressed her dissatisfaction with the current system to me.

3. I've been pelting the DoB with annoying questions for a while. They often do not result in great results. But I'll keep doing so. Specifically, I'm asking what the City is doing for safety for low-rise and non-union workers, but it's usually a press-friendly response, similar ot what you get fromt he unions and the Builders. The city says it's a priority and they're working on it, when I know pretty well they're not. They were so nice before... they got me the comish's full statement at that february emergency meeting and everything.

4. The fourth sign that my project is too big and cumbersome, I'm still looking for cities to compare NYC to when it comes to high-rise construction safety. I don't always get a lot of information in the way you might from the DoB website, for exmaple, and of course I'm limited to cities in the English-speaking world. Working, working... might not work out.

5. Academic sources. I haven't even started this angle - I'll keep you posted.

Thanks,

Andrew

Progress Memo: Mike Weiss, Air Quality

More interviews with:
Dave Newman, New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH)
Dr. Steven Markowitz, Dir. of the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, Queens College

Both were on EPA’s WTC Expert Technical Review Panel, a group which was created in 2004 after Senator Clinton’s insistence that EPA take a greater role in the cleanup of indoor spaces surrounding the WTC site. The panel met for 18 months and was eventually disbanded by the EPA with no clear recommendations.

Steven Markowitz tells me:
1. Currently New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation is monitoring air quality in lower Manhattan. They are doing this from the tops of buildings, and when asked if shouldn’t someone be monitoring air quality at ground level he says no, they are doing the appropriate job.
2. Responsibility for monitoring air quality will be transferred to the NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene under something called “The Mayor’s PLAN for NYC.”
3. If I really want to see how air quality monitoring is done, I should go to the lab of George Thurston, Dept. of Environmental Sciences, NYU. Then he tries to steer me away from this saying, “it will be really boring.”

Interview with Joel Kupferman, Executive Director of the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project. Kupferman tells me:
1. A lot of so-called environmental scientists are biased in favor of their organizations. Of course air quality monitoring should be conducted at street level. Kupferman offers to give me the contact info for an independent scientist.
2. Kupferman emails me six documents including an article from the organization Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) detailing the ways the New York Times assisted in the dangerously negligent job of under-reporting the air hazards at 9/11. Other reports detail Kupferman’s office’s law suit against former head of EPA Christine Todd Whitman, as well as reports showing the federal government’s laxity in aggressively pursuing environmental safety and actively assisting in the cover-up to avoid responsibility.

I plan on finding the locations where the state is monitoring air quality in lower Manhattan and try to get access to their data. Then I plan on working with an independent scientist to monitor air quality in the same locations as the state’s, only taking readings from the ground. Then compare the two.