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.”
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Progress Starkey MAIN STORY
First, for anyone who does not know, I am doing the pull-together centerpiece for the package. I hope to write this not as an introduction to the package but as a real story; one that exposes out the problems that many of us will likely bring to the surface, uses personal anecdotes to do so, weaves in some history that will hopefully add context and hopefully give the project some kind of focus. I am going to do this largely with the information you gather. My job, as I see it, is to take what will probably be close to 20,000 words and turn them into a concise, revealing, interesting and personal 1,500 to 2,000 word story. I hope the others then will read like extensive sidebars, with the big stuff all touched on within the center story. Just to make the pitch, I think this will give the project focus, make the stories relate to one another under this common focus and add relevance to each that might not be so obvious without a centerpiece. This might mean taking some of the best stuff out of all of your stories. I don’t know where we would go from there. Would we repeat stuff in the “sidebars” or work directly off the centerpiece? I would choose the latter, which would give everyone the opportunity to go more into depth in their own stories without repeating the reporting in the main. Please let me know how you think I should handle this. I am going to take a look at the drafts that are turned in and write a draft of this centerpiece by Wednesday of next week and post it on the blog. It would be great if you could have some feedback for me next Friday about where I have it right and where I have it wrong. That will help me understand what we all want out of this centerpiece, which I think is necessary for the reasons listed above.
The one thing I want to be unique to this story is an interview with Patricia Lancaster. We are late in getting to this but I have requested an interview through her PR office. What I need are questions. E-mail me at jwstarkey@gmail.com with any questions you may have. I am going to try my best to sit down with Ms. Lancaster and get the response to whatever we are writing about the buildings department.
History will be a part of the main story to give it, as I wrote earlier, some context. I will use some primary documents along with a media report or two and interviews. I have interviewed Dan Lucht, the former director of the Center for Firesafety Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Many of you probably recognize his name from media reports after September 11, 2001. He is an expert on fire safety, knows a lot about code history and gave me some interesting stuff. Some paralleled what Schwartz said about the attacks. For example, he said, “If it weren’t for the building being impacted by an airplane, I can’t imagine a fire that would have taken it down. I can’t imagine anyone designing a building that would withstand against that. You’d have to stop building them that tall. I’m sure that’s another strategy.” I also have arranged to interview Corbett when he returns next week. He is going to be my main source, along with primary documents, for the history of New York City code changes. We all know he’s pretty well educated on the subject. Because of his work in the past seven years, I also think his is a good personal story that should be included in one way or another in the main. I may even do a brief Q&A for the package with him because of his seeming endless knowledge on the subject. Either way, I will definitely record the interview so we can use some of the audio.
So that’s what is going on with me. Working on Lancaster is my main priority. Please get me questions whenever you can. Also, suggestions are encouraged. I want to know what everyone else wants out of this main story. I think it has a lot of potential, not just on its own, but to amplify everything else in the package. My cell phone number is (302) 233-3033, e-mail is jwstarkey@gmail.com. See everybody on Friday.
The one thing I want to be unique to this story is an interview with Patricia Lancaster. We are late in getting to this but I have requested an interview through her PR office. What I need are questions. E-mail me at jwstarkey@gmail.com with any questions you may have. I am going to try my best to sit down with Ms. Lancaster and get the response to whatever we are writing about the buildings department.
History will be a part of the main story to give it, as I wrote earlier, some context. I will use some primary documents along with a media report or two and interviews. I have interviewed Dan Lucht, the former director of the Center for Firesafety Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Many of you probably recognize his name from media reports after September 11, 2001. He is an expert on fire safety, knows a lot about code history and gave me some interesting stuff. Some paralleled what Schwartz said about the attacks. For example, he said, “If it weren’t for the building being impacted by an airplane, I can’t imagine a fire that would have taken it down. I can’t imagine anyone designing a building that would withstand against that. You’d have to stop building them that tall. I’m sure that’s another strategy.” I also have arranged to interview Corbett when he returns next week. He is going to be my main source, along with primary documents, for the history of New York City code changes. We all know he’s pretty well educated on the subject. Because of his work in the past seven years, I also think his is a good personal story that should be included in one way or another in the main. I may even do a brief Q&A for the package with him because of his seeming endless knowledge on the subject. Either way, I will definitely record the interview so we can use some of the audio.
So that’s what is going on with me. Working on Lancaster is my main priority. Please get me questions whenever you can. Also, suggestions are encouraged. I want to know what everyone else wants out of this main story. I think it has a lot of potential, not just on its own, but to amplify everything else in the package. My cell phone number is (302) 233-3033, e-mail is jwstarkey@gmail.com. See everybody on Friday.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Galyean - progress 2 - quotes
Choice quotes (several others in last memo, these are new only):
1- Frederic Schwarz, architect
"You've got to start with this: it's about people trying to get out and they can't get out."
"Buildings aren't designed for planes to fly into them, but the safety standards should be."
"Why build one less stairwell for X amount of extra feet? Why build 44-inch wide stairwells? Why not 66-inches? Why do you have to have 40,000 square feet instead of 38,000?"
"There's nothing preventing wider stairs and concrete stairs, except money."
"Everything that costs more money, most developers don't want to do and so they have a developer's association."
"Developers want to do the right things, but only to a point."
Q: Have you proposed wider stairwells in any of your designs?
"Forget it. That's not even a conversation. You're fighting for every inch."
NOTE: Extra few inches could cause more problems due to perception that more than 2 people could pass at a time.
2 - Glenn Corbett, professor of Fire Sciences at John Jay College and consultant to Skyscraper Safety Campaign
"I've never known the Port Authority to be interested in anyone's safety."
"Out of all the issues, one of the no-brainers, we thought, was the issue of stairway width."
"If you look at those photos, with firefighters coming up and civilians coming down, the people have to turn sideways. 55 inches gives you the ability for counter-flow, the ability for people to pass them.
"So, Jake [Pauls, fire safety consultant] goes to the NFPA, puts in a provision to put 55-inch stairwells in all high rise buildings. It's an obvious solution - a no-brainer. Any four-year-old can figure that out.
"Two organizations - BOMA [Building Owners and Managers Association] and GSA [General Services Administration] - knock it down. Every inch of stairwell is less rentable space."
RE: building to code
"I'm a belts and suspenders kind of guy. When you get these unusual projects, exceptionally tall projects, I think you need to do a bit more than minimum code."
2 - Sally Regenhard, founder of Skyscraper Safety Campaign
"They were death traps. After these twin towers collapsed like a house of cards, like something in the Third World, not one person was questioning: "How could this happen?"
"This is supposedly the greatest city in the world; supposedly the greatest country in the world. And no one was asking questions."
"Everything that failed in 1993 - the fire department radios, the police and fire not working together - nothing was done and here we have 2001."
"We want to talk about failures so we can prevent this happening again."
RE: attempts to work with Dept. of Buildings and Port Authority
"We met a brick wall."
"We were blocked every step of the way."
"They want to go back to business, go back to making money."
4 - John Labriola - WTC survivor from 71st floor of the North Building
RE: evacuation through stairwell.
"One of the stairwells smelled strongly of smoke. The other seemed okay and we joined a group of others already beginning the walk down... We walked down two by two stopping every so often for some unknown reason. Whenever necessary we would press ourselves into a single file line to let people get by. It was pretty hot; people were slipping on the sweat of the people who had come before them. In some places the smoke was worse than others. Thank god the lights always stayed on."
"Around the 35th floor we started meeting a steady stream of firefighters walking up and had to press into single file again. None of them said a word as they went up and past us carrying unbelievable loads of equipment. They were already exhausted by the time we started seeing them."
"A few floors lower water was flowing creating rapids down the stairs. This got worse as we got lower down. The stairwell led down to an outside door lined with emergency workers urging us to move to safety. There was debris and broken glass everywhere. The courtyard where this outdoor landing led us onto must have been blocked or too dangerous for us to cross because we were directed back into that second floor balcony again and down two escalators into the mall under Tower 1."
5 - Steve Scotford, Bluerock Real Estate, LLC
"Of course fire safety and evacuation matter to developers. We talk about it all the time. Every week, I'm at meetings [with engineers] about these things."
6 - Ron Burton, VP for Advocacy & Research, BOMA International
"We want to find ways to provide safety in a cost effective manner."
"Building design is a difficult balance of life-safety, energy conservation, environmental sensitivity, and tenant satisfaction."
7 - James Lee Witt, CEO International Code Council
"Historically, major advances in building safety and fire prevention codes have been the result of lessons learned from past events," said Witt. "While no code can eliminate all risks, what we learn from the past does save lives and better protect property in the future."
(quoted in 2005 regarding possible changes to the ICC building codes based on NIST recommendations)
GENERAL PROGRESS:
I've been outlining the story, which will use the specific example of the stairwells to illustrate the resistance that the real estate development community and Port Authority have shown to adopting the safety recommendations of the 1995 and 2005 WTC reports. I've located transcripts of a 2005 NIST conference that was intended to help developers comply with the recommendations included in the report. My next calls are to a couple more developers, Dept. of Buildings and Port Authority for their side of the story.
1- Frederic Schwarz, architect
"You've got to start with this: it's about people trying to get out and they can't get out."
"Buildings aren't designed for planes to fly into them, but the safety standards should be."
"Why build one less stairwell for X amount of extra feet? Why build 44-inch wide stairwells? Why not 66-inches? Why do you have to have 40,000 square feet instead of 38,000?"
"There's nothing preventing wider stairs and concrete stairs, except money."
"Everything that costs more money, most developers don't want to do and so they have a developer's association."
"Developers want to do the right things, but only to a point."
Q: Have you proposed wider stairwells in any of your designs?
"Forget it. That's not even a conversation. You're fighting for every inch."
NOTE: Extra few inches could cause more problems due to perception that more than 2 people could pass at a time.
2 - Glenn Corbett, professor of Fire Sciences at John Jay College and consultant to Skyscraper Safety Campaign
"I've never known the Port Authority to be interested in anyone's safety."
"Out of all the issues, one of the no-brainers, we thought, was the issue of stairway width."
"If you look at those photos, with firefighters coming up and civilians coming down, the people have to turn sideways. 55 inches gives you the ability for counter-flow, the ability for people to pass them.
"So, Jake [Pauls, fire safety consultant] goes to the NFPA, puts in a provision to put 55-inch stairwells in all high rise buildings. It's an obvious solution - a no-brainer. Any four-year-old can figure that out.
"Two organizations - BOMA [Building Owners and Managers Association] and GSA [General Services Administration] - knock it down. Every inch of stairwell is less rentable space."
RE: building to code
"I'm a belts and suspenders kind of guy. When you get these unusual projects, exceptionally tall projects, I think you need to do a bit more than minimum code."
2 - Sally Regenhard, founder of Skyscraper Safety Campaign
"They were death traps. After these twin towers collapsed like a house of cards, like something in the Third World, not one person was questioning: "How could this happen?"
"This is supposedly the greatest city in the world; supposedly the greatest country in the world. And no one was asking questions."
"Everything that failed in 1993 - the fire department radios, the police and fire not working together - nothing was done and here we have 2001."
"We want to talk about failures so we can prevent this happening again."
RE: attempts to work with Dept. of Buildings and Port Authority
"We met a brick wall."
"We were blocked every step of the way."
"They want to go back to business, go back to making money."
4 - John Labriola - WTC survivor from 71st floor of the North Building
RE: evacuation through stairwell.
"One of the stairwells smelled strongly of smoke. The other seemed okay and we joined a group of others already beginning the walk down... We walked down two by two stopping every so often for some unknown reason. Whenever necessary we would press ourselves into a single file line to let people get by. It was pretty hot; people were slipping on the sweat of the people who had come before them. In some places the smoke was worse than others. Thank god the lights always stayed on."
"Around the 35th floor we started meeting a steady stream of firefighters walking up and had to press into single file again. None of them said a word as they went up and past us carrying unbelievable loads of equipment. They were already exhausted by the time we started seeing them."
"A few floors lower water was flowing creating rapids down the stairs. This got worse as we got lower down. The stairwell led down to an outside door lined with emergency workers urging us to move to safety. There was debris and broken glass everywhere. The courtyard where this outdoor landing led us onto must have been blocked or too dangerous for us to cross because we were directed back into that second floor balcony again and down two escalators into the mall under Tower 1."
5 - Steve Scotford, Bluerock Real Estate, LLC
"Of course fire safety and evacuation matter to developers. We talk about it all the time. Every week, I'm at meetings [with engineers] about these things."
6 - Ron Burton, VP for Advocacy & Research, BOMA International
"We want to find ways to provide safety in a cost effective manner."
"Building design is a difficult balance of life-safety, energy conservation, environmental sensitivity, and tenant satisfaction."
7 - James Lee Witt, CEO International Code Council
"Historically, major advances in building safety and fire prevention codes have been the result of lessons learned from past events," said Witt. "While no code can eliminate all risks, what we learn from the past does save lives and better protect property in the future."
(quoted in 2005 regarding possible changes to the ICC building codes based on NIST recommendations)
GENERAL PROGRESS:
I've been outlining the story, which will use the specific example of the stairwells to illustrate the resistance that the real estate development community and Port Authority have shown to adopting the safety recommendations of the 1995 and 2005 WTC reports. I've located transcripts of a 2005 NIST conference that was intended to help developers comply with the recommendations included in the report. My next calls are to a couple more developers, Dept. of Buildings and Port Authority for their side of the story.
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
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
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
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.
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.
Highlight Quotes: Cranes (CARLSON)
1. Fernando Arrajo
Roofer, Member of Local 8
Eagle One
"The regulations are okay but right now I don't trust some people, like the inspectors. You have to look out for your own safety."
2. J.M
Crane Operator with Local 15
22 years operating cranes
"I think the latest accident happened because of human error. What happened in that situation involved a crew of inexperienced people."
"When it comes to the new regulations, they're just assigning new people to do things and they don't have a clue about cranes…On paper is different than in practice."
"The people who are going to be on the hurting end of the new rules are the contractors. Those guys have a schedule to keep. For example, we just did a jump on 57th Street. The City was late so there were 20 guys standing around waiting."
"After that accident, it was definitely a bit shaky. But you try to push past it." (Referring to being at the site of the 2006 accident when a piece of a crane fell onto a taxi)
"There's a small circle of people who operate the cranes. Everybody knows everybody. I'll only work with certain people. A lot of people won't work with the guy who was in charge of the site for the recent accident."
"There are guys now who don't want to go up in the towers anymore. It's common. People walking by don't want to even want to go under the cranes anymore."
3. Dr. Goldwaser
Psychiatrist
-has dealt with mental impairments in construction workers
"PTSD can definitely happen to workers involved in an accident. They may be more prepared than the woman in the taxi, but absolutely they can suffer from this." (Referring to the 2006 accident)
"They're not trained to deal with people dying or suffering. It's not supposed to be part of the job. So they will be affected because they likely trust that everything is in place as it should be."
"Even if you were not there, you are left with your own mind and imagination. It's a normal reaction and emotion. We all feel fear sometimes."
4. Mr. Howard Raphaelson
Raphaelson Law Firm P.C., Personal Injury Law Firm
Representing Sissy Siganoff, 2006 crane-accident victim
"Sissy did call me immediately following the recent crane collapse in New York City. She called feeling great anxiety and distress that the city could allow this type of disaster to occur again. I understood her anxiety. New York city is allowing construction disasters to occur one after another. She has developed severe fear of construction sites and overhead sidewalk bridges which has lead to debilitating fear that generally forces her to remain confined to her home." (Referring to the victimm of the 2006 accident)
"Unfortunately for the families of the deceased in this recent disaster, Ms Siganoff's warning was not enough. As is usually the case, the only proof that the city will react to is death. How tragic."
5. Mr. Tony Avella
City Councilmember
Member of the Housing and Buildings Committee
"How would anybody think that crane was safe? It was attached by a single beam. You don't have to be an engineer to see that. There should at least have been redundancy in the beams. It's just a lack of action by the department of buildings. The regulations weren't strong enough and the agency just looked the other way."
"It's as though the agency not only doesn't keep up with new industry practices, but its doing no enforcement of the regulations that are already on the books. The agency has been asleep at the switch, whether it's cranes or anything else."
"There have been a huge number of incidents in recent years, all under Commissioner Lancaster and the mayor's watch. This is not personal, but Commissioner Lancaster doesn't have the leadership capabilities or the political willpower to make changes. Enough is enough. She has to go."
"After a different recent crane accident, I ripped into her because nothing's being done. We sit here like dummies listening to the agency give us the company line. It's like the saying goes: 'fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.' How many times is this going to happen?"
"The industry is very unhappy with the agency because they're not reaching out to them."
6. Keith Schwam
Assistant Commissioner at Building's Department of Investigations
"The primary focus of the department is investigations involving crime and corruption. The arrest of the crane inspector was within a matter of days. That's the case that is now being reviewed. We do these types of things all the time. The department frequently conducts investigations into allegations involving falsification of records."
7. Jane Swanson
Chief of staff to Councilmember Jessica Lappin
Lappin is a member of the Housing and Buildings Committee
"The City Council's Housing and Buildings Committee is holding a hearing on April 29. This hearing, because of the recent tragedy, will focus on the city's cranes rather than more broadly on other building issues."
Roofer, Member of Local 8
Eagle One
"The regulations are okay but right now I don't trust some people, like the inspectors. You have to look out for your own safety."
2. J.M
Crane Operator with Local 15
22 years operating cranes
"I think the latest accident happened because of human error. What happened in that situation involved a crew of inexperienced people."
"When it comes to the new regulations, they're just assigning new people to do things and they don't have a clue about cranes…On paper is different than in practice."
"The people who are going to be on the hurting end of the new rules are the contractors. Those guys have a schedule to keep. For example, we just did a jump on 57th Street. The City was late so there were 20 guys standing around waiting."
"After that accident, it was definitely a bit shaky. But you try to push past it." (Referring to being at the site of the 2006 accident when a piece of a crane fell onto a taxi)
"There's a small circle of people who operate the cranes. Everybody knows everybody. I'll only work with certain people. A lot of people won't work with the guy who was in charge of the site for the recent accident."
"There are guys now who don't want to go up in the towers anymore. It's common. People walking by don't want to even want to go under the cranes anymore."
3. Dr. Goldwaser
Psychiatrist
-has dealt with mental impairments in construction workers
"PTSD can definitely happen to workers involved in an accident. They may be more prepared than the woman in the taxi, but absolutely they can suffer from this." (Referring to the 2006 accident)
"They're not trained to deal with people dying or suffering. It's not supposed to be part of the job. So they will be affected because they likely trust that everything is in place as it should be."
"Even if you were not there, you are left with your own mind and imagination. It's a normal reaction and emotion. We all feel fear sometimes."
4. Mr. Howard Raphaelson
Raphaelson Law Firm P.C., Personal Injury Law Firm
Representing Sissy Siganoff, 2006 crane-accident victim
"Sissy did call me immediately following the recent crane collapse in New York City. She called feeling great anxiety and distress that the city could allow this type of disaster to occur again. I understood her anxiety. New York city is allowing construction disasters to occur one after another. She has developed severe fear of construction sites and overhead sidewalk bridges which has lead to debilitating fear that generally forces her to remain confined to her home." (Referring to the victimm of the 2006 accident)
"Unfortunately for the families of the deceased in this recent disaster, Ms Siganoff's warning was not enough. As is usually the case, the only proof that the city will react to is death. How tragic."
5. Mr. Tony Avella
City Councilmember
Member of the Housing and Buildings Committee
"How would anybody think that crane was safe? It was attached by a single beam. You don't have to be an engineer to see that. There should at least have been redundancy in the beams. It's just a lack of action by the department of buildings. The regulations weren't strong enough and the agency just looked the other way."
"It's as though the agency not only doesn't keep up with new industry practices, but its doing no enforcement of the regulations that are already on the books. The agency has been asleep at the switch, whether it's cranes or anything else."
"There have been a huge number of incidents in recent years, all under Commissioner Lancaster and the mayor's watch. This is not personal, but Commissioner Lancaster doesn't have the leadership capabilities or the political willpower to make changes. Enough is enough. She has to go."
"After a different recent crane accident, I ripped into her because nothing's being done. We sit here like dummies listening to the agency give us the company line. It's like the saying goes: 'fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.' How many times is this going to happen?"
"The industry is very unhappy with the agency because they're not reaching out to them."
6. Keith Schwam
Assistant Commissioner at Building's Department of Investigations
"The primary focus of the department is investigations involving crime and corruption. The arrest of the crane inspector was within a matter of days. That's the case that is now being reviewed. We do these types of things all the time. The department frequently conducts investigations into allegations involving falsification of records."
7. Jane Swanson
Chief of staff to Councilmember Jessica Lappin
Lappin is a member of the Housing and Buildings Committee
"The City Council's Housing and Buildings Committee is holding a hearing on April 29. This hearing, because of the recent tragedy, will focus on the city's cranes rather than more broadly on other building issues."
Monday, April 7, 2008
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)