Safety: "Forced Down People's Throats"

By Elizabeth Giegerich

When a plane hit One World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Greg Trevor was staring out the window at the Statue of Liberty. The impact of the airliner that crashed 20 floors above him almost knocked him to the floor and he felt the building swaying.

Because Trevor was the senior information officer for Port Authority, news stations immediately started to call him for comments about the incident. Trevor hung up on the reporters. He had a job to do: he was thoroughly trained to deal with all emergency situations and needed to put his preparation techniques into action.

“Within a few minutes, we gathered the staff, threw files and notepads into our bags, and prepared to evacuate the floor. It began to fill with grainy smoke,” Trevor wrote in his account of the tragic event later that afternoon.

Everyone on Trevor’s floor, the 68th, got out of the World Trade Center alive that day. “I know people that were on the 65th, 72nd, 73rd, all different floors where they had to get some people stuck in elevators on their floor out first before they started to evacuate,” Trevor remembered during an interview seven years later.

“People in wheel chairs were carried down and people who were visually impaired made it out too. A lot of people knew what they needed to do and they got out safely.”

The people who “knew what they needed to do,” were those who had been trained or were led by people like Trevor who had regularly participated in training exercises, classes, and emergency drills.

One month prior to 9/11 Trevor had participated in a table top exercise – a hypothetical situation was given to him and other company appointed fire marshals on his floor, and they were to talk through each step required to ensure every employee’s safety and well being. That exercise had nothing to do with a terrorist attack, but past table top exercises he’d participated in contributed to saving Trevor and thousands of others the day the planes destroyed the twin towers.

As dull as “emergency preparedness” may sound, and as irksome a fire drill can be on a typical work day, people who are well prepared for emergencies have a better chance of making it out alive on tragic days like 9/11, or out of any unexpected dangerous situation.

Sadly, there were thousands who lost their lives on 9/11, whether they were well-trained or not, but New York City realized that regular citizens were well-trained heroes that day. Many survived because they or their leaders were prepared for something as unexpected and catastrophic as a fatal terrorist attack.

In 2004, in response to 9/11, New York State enacted a law called local law 26 (L.L.26) which requires all high rise buildings to institute Emergency Action Plans (EAPs). EAPs are detailed response plans for any type of emergency besides a fire (fire safety plans have been in effect for decades). Terrorist attacks, chemical spills, threats to air quality, and natural disasters, are a few examples of emergencies covered under L.L.26.

Of the approximately 1,800 buildings in the city that now require EAPs, about 900 have filed their plans with the New York Fire Department, but only about 370 have been accepted by the department, according to an official from the bureau of fire prevention who wished to remain anonymous.

The reasons for a rather low number of accepted EAPs vary; law makers and building owners hope that EAPs will never have to be used, so the time and money spent on their implementations is hard for some buildings to commit to. EAPs are inherently difficult to create so building owners and managers often turn to expensive outside consultants to help with plans, which raises costs. The fire official from the bureau of fire prevention said that EAPs created by outside consultants are often the best submitted to FDNY. However, the fire department has rejected many, some created by private consultants, and some created by building managers themselves. Buildings that require, but have failed to create an EAP, will eventually be issued a violation and probably be fined “a couple hundred dollars or so,” said the fire official. But the cost of creating an EAP is much higher.

“There was a huge paradigm shift after 9/11,” said Ira Tenebaum, coordinator of the public private initiative at the New York Office of Emergency Management. “It changed the way anyone looked at emergency management (and they realized) staff and personnel was more important than computers and information.”

Some building owners and managers seem to have come to this realization, but most have not; most just comply with the law and do not take any further precautions to ensure their tenants safety, according to experts in the emergency preparedness field.

“No one wants to make an investment in safety, they only want to do the minimum safety requirements, because it is not something that they make a priority of unfortunately,” said Evan Lipstein, president of Hyline Safety, an emergency preparedness consultant company. “EAPs are forced down people’s throats,” said Lipstein. “Otherwise they don’t give a rat’s ass about safety, they just care about putting money in their pockets.”

Bob Pecora of Quality Fire, an emergency consultant company, said most of the buildings that use Quality “stick to the minimum requirements, because of the cost factor.” But he added that some of the bigger properties, like Boston Properties, have asked for additional training. “I guess they are concerned for safety. They have a lot of large properties in NYC and they asked for extra seminars, extra drills.”

Depending on a building’s size, the number of people who are involved with training varies. EAP and fire safety laws require each floor to have a fire marshal who communicates with the fire (and now EAP) director, who is most familiar with the building, and often also the security guard.

The safety directors receive 20 hours of training, and three tests; two written tests and one “on-site” test. During the on-site test, the fire department goes to a site and tests the fire safety director by creating an emergency scenario in which the director will need to prove his or her knowledge of the building and the correct steps that will need to be taken to ensure the tenants’ safety. Their job is critical: They are the liaison between the fire department and the people in the building.

“I am responsible for any alarm activations, plus I’m familiar with the building, first responders are not,” said Ray Rosario, a fire safety director who has been in the business for 27 years. “I know where the stairwells are and what kind of facilities we have, how to use elevators in fire recall, how to evacuate handicapped people. But people do not take fire drills seriously,” he said. “It’s frustrating because we will have a drill and they don’t want to get up and do it.”

Fire fighter Joe Cunningham leads a fire safety director certification course twice a week for Hyline to teach future directors everything they need to know to pass the tests and discuss how best to deal with tenants who are reluctant to take orders. On one recent Thursday night his students patiently sat through a four hour class, occasionally murmuring complaints about how people fail to perform their daily duties as fire marshals, like signing in at the front desk everyday.

Despite their complaints about others who do not take safety seriously, the class of mostly building personnel were quick to proclaim how importantly they view their ability to deal with emergencies, and general safety.

“This ain’t no joke,” said Ernesto Baez, 44. “This is people’s lives.”





Sources:
Ernesto Baez – student in Joe Cunningham’s fire safety certification class
Ray Rosario – Fire safety director at Pfizer building midtown
212-733-7300
Joe Cunningham – Fire fighter and fire safety certification teacher joenorc@optonline.com
Evan Lipstein - Global Security Group and Hyline Safety Company
212-688-5600, hylineny@aol.com
Bob Pecora – Quality Fire
212-695-0890
Greg Trevor - 732-932-7084, ext. 623
Ira Tenebaum - Office of Emergency Management Coordinator of the Public/Private Initiative 718-422-3000

City's Trust in Cranes Dwindles in Wake of Recent Accidents

By Kathryn Carlson



New York, April 24 - Sissy Siganoff panicked when she heard of the March 15 crane collapse that killed seven people and injured 24 others on Manhattan's Upper East Side. She was taken back to nearly two years ago when a 14-foot piece of crane pancaked the taxi she was riding in near Union Square.

Immediately after the recent crane collapse, a rattled Siganoff phoned her attorney, Howard Raphaelson. "She called feeling great anxiety and distress that the city could allow this type of disaster to occur again," said Raphaelson. "New York City is allowing construction disasters to occur one after another. 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."

According to Raphaelson, Siganoff has developed a severe fear of construction sites and overhead sidewalk bridges, forcing her to spend much of her time confined to her home. The crushed taxi now sits in the driver's brother's garage, reminding cabbie Chrislorm Paul of his brush with an 8,000-pound metal chunk that plunged within inches of his seat.
While Paul has gone back to driving taxis, the pair are in the midst of suing three of the companies involved in the maintenance and operation of the crane -- all of which are claiming they are "not at fault" because they were in compliance with the City's Building Code regulations.

Within days of the accident, city officials released a report describing the collapse stating that the crane was in the process of being "jumped" -- a technique where sections are added to the structure to raise it -- when a piece of a steel collar fell off the bracing and severed a lower portion of the crane, knocking out a set of braces and toppling the entire crane from the 18th floor of an East Manhattan residential building.

As reported by The New York Times, the number of crane-related accidents across the five boroughs increased from 2006 to 2007. There were eight accidents involving fatalities or injuries in 2007 up from five in 2006, and 21 incidents not involving fatalities or injuries up from 14. The number of safety violations at high-rise construction sites has nearly doubled over the same period, according to a City report quoted in the New York Sun.

New York indeed stands tall, stretching lengthwise with its high-rise residential buildings and skyscrapers, peppered with the towering steel cranes that allow for upward development. But after the March 15 accident, cranes were no longer simply regarded as unaffecting machines -- and Siganoff was suddenly not so alone in her fears.

The crane collapse breached the public's trust in the stability of the more than 250 cranes that graze the city's skyline cranes. This accident and others -- including a December 2007 incident when seven tons of steel fell onto Murray Street and injured an architect, and a January 2008 accident when a construction worker fell 42 stories from a hotel on Spring Street -- has especially soured the relationship between cranes and construction workers. Just as it's no longer unusual to see passersby avoiding the stigmatized structures, some construction workers are more wary about their close existence with cranes.

A crane operator of 22 years, who requested to be identified as J.M., was present at the site when Siganoff's taxi was flattened. "After seeing that accident, it was definitely a bit shaky for me," J.M. said, as he looked up at the crane on the site where he's now working at the corner of Bowery Street and Great Jones Street. "You just have to push past it. But after accidents like that and the recent one, there are guys now who don't want to go up in the towers anymore. It's more common than you'd think."

Another worker said he's also worried. "Right now I don't trust that everything's okay all the time," said Fernando Arajjo, a roofer with Roofers' Union Local No. 8. "You have to look out for your own safety, now I look for loose posts and screws. Because of the accidents, I feel like I have to be more careful."

Dr. Alberto Goldwaser, a psychiatrist with Forensic Psychiatric Associates, said this sort of reaction is not uncommon. "Even if a person was not there to experience a particular incident, a person is left with their own mind and imagination," Goldwaser said.

J.M. said trust among crewmembers is important in his line of work, adding that there's a small circle of crane operators and that it's an industry where everyone knows everyone. "A lot of guys won't work with the person who was in charge of the site for the recent accident," he said. "I'll only work with certain people. We're the ones up there. Everyday, people go up and down. These guys have families."

While it's largely the lead engineer's responsibility to make sure the crane is secure, J.M. said the crew looks out for each other and works together to ensure that the site is safe.

Following the March 15 collapse, the Buildings Department ordered some changes to the way the City inspects and regulates tower cranes. A City inspector must now be present every time a crane is erected, jumped, or dismantled, a project engineer must submit a written protocol for each jump, and nylon slings -- the tearing of which was thought to be involved in the most recent accident -- can only be used if they are specifically recommended by the crane manufacturer.

Some within the industry are already questioning the effectiveness of the new regulations. "When it comes to the new regulations, they're just assigning people to do things that they don't really have a clue about," J.M said. "What's more is that the people who are going to be on the hurting end of the new rules are the contractors, because they have a schedule to keep. We just did a jump on 57th Street and the City was late so there were 20 guys standing around waiting."

City Councilmember Tony Avella says these regulations are too little, too late, and points to the fact that no sweeping changes were made to crane-related building codes in the wake of the rise in accidents. "It's like the agency not only doesn't keep up with new industry practices, it's also doing no enforcement of the regulations that are already on the books," said Avella, who is a member of the Buildings and Housing Committee.

Avella said he became so frustrated with Building Commissioner Patricia Lancaster's inaction that he began calling for her resignation immediately after the most recent collapse. "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 admitting to a City Council hearing that her department had incorrectly issued permits at the March 15 collapse site, Lancaster -- who held the position since 2002 -- stepped down April 23. While neither Mayor Michael Bloomberg nor Lancaster offered details of the resignation, both expressed confidence in Lancaster's deputy, Robert LiMandri, who will serve as interim commissioner.

The City Council's Buildings and Housing Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on April 29 to look further into the cause of the recent collapse and discuss the future of the city's cranes.


SOURCES:
Howard A. Raphaelson
Raphaelson Law Firm P.C., Personal Injury Law Firm
Representing Sissy Siganoff, 2006 crane-accident victim

Tony Avella
City Councilmember
Member of the Housing and Buildings Committee

J.M
Crane Operator with Local 15
22 years operating cranes

Fernando Arrajo
Roofer, Member of Local 8

Keith Schwam
Assistant Commissioner at Building's Department of Investigations

Jane Swanson
Chief of staff to Councilmember Jessica Lappin

Dr. Goldwaser
Psychiatrist

Construction workers at Bowery site
Building and Housing Committee Press Releases
Newspaper articles (New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Sun)
Building and Construction Trades Council, website
New York City Department of Buildings, website
NYC Buildings Information System, website
NYC Construction Code

Through the Haze: the Truth about 9/11 Air

by Mike Weiss

New York, April 24 - “I lived downtown in Battery Park City before 9/11, a couple of blocks south,” said Craig Hall. “On 9/11 I took my children to school that morning, one to nursery, one to PS 89. I came out of my son’s nursery the first plane had just gone in. I walked south back to Battery Park, I was standing and . . . then I saw the second plane go in. I watched it fly down West Street and then go into the second tower just above my head . . . I grabbed my children, one was in a stroller and I ran for my life. We were caught on the edge of the dust cloud. Luckily we ran north and the wind for some reason that day the wind blew south, and it saved us.”

Hall is president of the World Trade Center Residents Coalition, and on 9/11 as far as he knew, he and his family were safe. He knows better now. Because no government agency warned him about the dangers from 9/11 dust he went back to his apartment a few days after the tragedy and over the next five weeks tried cleaning the apartment himself.

“The place was covered, dust everywhere – the windows were open.”

Severe allergies, nosebleeds, 30 percent decreased lung capacity – as well as the thyroid surgery his wife has endured are all common signs of the effects of breathing in the toxins from 9/11. The approximately 3,000 direct deaths on that day can be blamed on the terrorists, but who is responsible for the approximately 10,000 people suffering physical health impairments because of the air they breathed in soon after?

Even if the causes of 9/11 air contamination are gone, there is now a new hazard in the air. The construction boom in lower Manhattan, such as the city has never seen before, has produced 35 new buildings since 9/11 and many more are under construction. Idling diesel concrete mixers, bulldozers, cranes, trash-haulers – all spew their toxins into residential areas. And all this dust from demolition and construction activity seems eerily like a reply of 9/11 where a seemingly unconcerned government is standing by as the populace takes the brunt of a new and unknown health hazard in its midst.

Christine Todd Whitman and the EPA

Soon after the events of 9/11, on September 18, 2001, Christine Todd Whitman in her role as Administrator of the federal EPA released a widely-known statement, often pointed to in later accusations of her actions. The statement, which is still supported by the EPA and runs on their web site (http://www.epa.gov/wtc/stories/headline_091801.htm) is as follows: "Given the scope of the tragedy from last week, I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C. that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink."

However, what is not so clearly known but has only come to light through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the New York Environmental Law & Justice Project is an internal EPA memo dated the day before. On September 17, 2001 the EPA Region 2 World Trade Center Emergency Response Activities to Date update memo states, “The majority of sample results thus far indicate that asbestos levels are below levels of concern. The highest levels came from a monitor located one-half block from ground zero, demonstrating the need for rescuers to wear appropriate protective gear.”

Instead of making this memo public and alerting people to a hazardous waste danger, as is the clearly stated responsibility of the EPA by powers granted in the National Contingency Plan, Administrator Whitman did just the opposite. She reassured the public that the air was officially deemed safe, and because of this thousands of New Yorkers have since paid the price.

How do we know people got sick because of 9/11 dust?

There are three main centers for studying people who have sought medical care for conditions they believed were caused by 9/11. The Mount Sinai Medical Monitoring Program is the largest and screens all Ground Zero workers who have come in for help. As of December 2006, this was 9,442 “responders” - workers who were performing their jobs as part of the 9/11 rescue and recovery – but not firefighters. The FDNY runs their own medical monitoring unit near their headquarters in Brooklyn. The third center is for all non-responders such as residents, office workers, and students and is called the World Trade Center Environmental Health Center. This center, with its main clinic in Bellevue Hospital, currently sees about 2,400 patients.

In a report published in Environmental Health Perspectives in December 2006, the Mount Sinai experts reported numerous respiratory problems in the 9,442 people they studied. Most (69 percent) had new or worsened symptoms while performing WTC work. “Forced vital capacity” (FVC), a measurement of lung functioning, was five times worse than in the general U.S. population, and overall respiratory symptoms and abnormalities were, “significantly associated with early arrival at the site.”

At the WTC Environmental Health Center, director Joan Reibman admits, “how do we know these illnesses are WTC-related or not? There’s a lot we don’t know.”

However, she took part in a New York State Department of Health survey which began soon after 9/11 and was completed a year and half later. In it, residents around Ground Zero showed increased symptoms and shortness of breath, symptoms which were new to this population.

In her early work with the WTC Environmental Health Center, Dr. Reibman first saw patients with sinus inflammation, asthma, and usually pulmonary symptoms only. Recently, the medical conditions she sees have begun expanding to other organs of the body, and now more people come in with endocrine problems, cancers, and depression, post traumatic stress syndrome, and other anxiety conditions related specifically to 9/11.

“We see a whole spectrum. Hundreds of thousands of people were exposed,” she said.

What was the government thinking?

“There was a lot of flag-waving,” said Joel Kupferman, director of the New York Environmental Law & Justice Project about the days after 9/11. “A lot of pressure from the top to admit that the country didn’t take a hit.”

Dave Newman from the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, and a former member of the EPA’s WTC Expert Technical Review Panel said, “look at the whole record of the Bush administration, on regulatory cut-backs and especially on environmental issues.”

Then there is the rush to construction. 35 new buildings have been constructed in lower Manhattan since 9/11 and more are planned. The speed is such as to have caused 18 construction deaths in 2006, 12 in 2007, and 12 so far in the less than four months of this year. Air quality regulations only seem to get in the way.

The lack of credibility from government inspectors was obvious. Lynda Caspe lives on the top floor of a building on Franklin Street, a few blocks south of Canal Street. Broken skylights in her apartment allowed 9/11 dust to accumulate in her apartment, and when she contacted the city’s Department of Environmental Protection for help, they sent over someone to take a look.

“I asked him where’s your equipment,” Caspe related. “What equipment, I’m just looking, he said. Then he said, it doesn’t look dusty to me!”

“I asked him if he wanted to see the roof, so we went up to the roof. There were piles of it all over the place so I asked him about it – doesn’t look dusty to me, he said!”

Caspe then hired a lawyer who knew an EPA inspector and this inspector was able to arrange for a proper inspection. Using high-quality air monitoring equipment, the EPA inspection revealed high levels of asbestos in the samples in Caspe’s apartment, and soon after agreed to clean her apartment.

When asked if she has trouble believing anything the government says now, Caspe laughed, “I believed George Bush when he said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction so you know something’s wrong with my mind!”

The community responds

On Sunday April 13, 2008 in the auditorium of the Borough of Manhattan Community College near the WTC site, community groups came together to hear testimony from a panel of residents, professionals, and government officials involved in the 9/11 aftermath.

In Chinese, Spanish, and Polish translations, the audience of about 120 listened as panel members openly expressed their despair and anger at the government. The primary criticisms were for not alerting the public of dangers the government knew about and for not taking care of the medical expenses people have now, which can run to hundreds of dollars a month for themselves and their children.

Many felt betrayed.

“We helped this country get up when it was on its knees, now we have to beg for help. It shouldn’t have to be this way,” said Alex Sanchez.

Lea Geronimo, a pretty 37-year-old who looks in her twenties, was an office worker near the Stock Exchange on 9/11 and now has numerous health issues which include bronchitis, gynecological cysts, neurological deteriorations, and psoriasis patches of scabs on her face, stomach, and arms.

“It pisses me off,” said Geronimo. “The whole world economy was supposed to be in flux. Most of us had this feeling of camaraderie, ‘I need to get my office together’ – we could have left, the residents could have left, everybody, the students – but we all stayed and we did our part – and now we need the government to fund our health care and to do studies, real studies,” she said.

When asked if she still felt the government was even now honestly reporting and alerting the public to air quality hazards in lower Manhattan, she said, “it doesn’t matter any more, now we are the evidence.”

Air quality today

The Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center is supposed to be monitoring air quality for the numerous construction sites in lower Manhattan. However, this ad hoc government agency is not accountable to any other and is not responsible for reporting their data to the public. Of the data they do post on their web site, it’s unclear how they collect it, at what times of the day, and since they do not respond to media requests for information, it’s impossible to clear these issues up.

In addition, the responsibility for monitoring general air quality has reverted back to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Since lower Manhattan is no longer officially under a state of emergency, the standards of the 1970s Clean Air Act come into play, which requires the NYS DEC to monitor the air quality from stations all over the state and report their data to the EPA.
Because they are accountable to this law, it’s clear to see how the state does this testing, even though it is limited. For example, the closest state air monitoring station to the 9/11 site is located near City Hall at one Pace Plaza, not a good thing for the residents who live across the street from the Ground Zero construction. Also, all the state air monitoring stations are located on rooftops, far away from the diesel engines on the ground. Also, the state reports its data as averaged over a 24-hour period. This means that the air quality on cool nights when construction stops is given the same statistical weight as the air quality during a hot summer day when all the machines are running.

Gretchen Ferenz, the director of the Cornell University Cooperative Extension has done a study comparing the ground air quality to data measured by state air monitors located above street level. The initial purpose of her study, as part of a training program for her students, was to see if vegetation effected the way particles behaved in the air. Specifically, if the presence of trees and other plants reduced or had any effect on the way particulate matter is suspended in the air.

By chance, her study required her to compare her own air monitor readings taken at ground level to data being reported by state air monitors, which are located on the rooftops of buildings. Even though she is quick to point out she is not an epidemiologist and her results should not be used to make any statement about public health, she said, “let’s just say our results are consistent (with the state’s), at a certain level they don’t change much. But we found that at intersections, when the light is red? Zooooooom - our readings are off the chart.”

Sources

Reporters
Penny Little,filmmaker, “9/11 Dust and Deceipt” www.911dust.org

Environmental/Health related groups
Tammy Kim, lawyer, Urban Justice Center
Interviewed in person April 13, 2008

Joel Kupferman, New York Environmental Law & Justice Project, 351 Broadway, 4th floor, New York, NY 10007 212-334-5551 envjoel@ix.netcom.com 917-414-1983
Interviewed in person April 8, April 11, April 13, 2008. Interviewed by phone April 18, 2008

Kimberly Flynn, 9/11 Environmental Action
Dave Newman, New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health
Frederic Schwartz, Schwartz Architects, 212-741-3021 fschwartz@schwartzarch.com
Glenn Corbett, Fire Engineering Magazine, 201-993-2814 gcorbet1@ix.netcom.com
Interviewed in person April 21, 2008
Sally Regenhard, Skyscraper Safety Campaign 646-266-1987 sallyR@skyscrapersafety.org
Interviewed in person April 21, 2008

Doctors/Scientists
Kathy Burns, Ph.D., Director, Sciencecorps, Lexington, Massachusetts, 781-861-1108 kmb@sciencecorps.org http://www.sciencecorps.org
Dr. Eileen Cohen, WTC Environmental Health Center at Bellevue Hospital, inteviewed in person at the 9/11 Community Health Forum 4/13/08
Dr. Barbara Reibman, NYU School of Medicine, Environmental Medicine, inteviewed in person at the 9/11 Community Health Forum 4/13/08 212-263-6479 (asst: “lisette”) reibmj01@gcrc.med.nyu.edu
Dr. Paul Lioy, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
Dr. Lyndon Rose, Queens Hospital WTC Medical Monitoring Program
Dr. Philip Landrigan, Mount Sinai Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine
Dr. George Thurston, NYU Environmental Sciences
Gretchen Ferenz, Director, Cornell University Cooperative Extension
Rodrick Wallace
Interviewed by phone April 21, 2008

Government
Elias Rodriguez, EPA Region 2
Mary Mears, EPA Region 2
LMCCC – Tom Kunkel, Deborah Wetzel
Paul Stein, NYS Dept. of Health
Thomas Panzon(e) NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Office of Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)
Erin Drinkwater, Manhattan Community Representative, 212-367-7350
Interviewed in person April 13, 2008 at the 9/11 Community Health Forum
Shin Inouye, Director of Communications
Interviewed by phone February 6, 2008

Residents
Lynda Caspe, resident living a few blocks away from the WTC, interviewed by phone 4/9/08
Craig Hall resident living near WTC, inteviewed in person at the 9/11 Community Health Forum 4/13/08
Workers
Lea Geronimo office worker at 9/11, inteviewed in person at the 9/11 Community Health Forum 4/13/08

Students
Amit Friedlander, Stuyvesant High School senior at 9/11 and cancer survivor

Reports
EPA Region 2 World Trade Center Emergency Response Activities to Date, EPA internal memo, dated September, 17, 2001, released in pdf format as part of FOIA request by New York Environmental Law & Justice Project

“The World Trade Center Disaster and the Health of Workers: Five-Year Assessment of a Unique Medical Screening Program.” http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2006/9592/abstract.html
Paper written by prominent New York area environmental health doctors, primarily focusing on the Mount Sinai WTC Medical Monitoring Program and published in the magazine Environmental Health Perspectives in December 2006.

Office of Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)
“White Paper on Lower Manhattan Air Quality” released April 12, 2002

Rough Draft (did I mention rough?)

Innovation since the terrorist attack on September 11 has helped firefighters advance their technique and somehow this technology is not making it to the Fire Department of New York City (FDNY). Companies like Motorola and the government are slowing this process down; while, organizations such as the Gear Up Foundation are helping get devices into the hands of those who need it.

“Firefighters adjust to anything,” Nicholas C. Gaudiosi said. Gaudiosi is VP Director of Life Safety at Lehman Brothers global investment bank and former FDNY firefighter who retired in 2003 as Captain of Ladder 7.

Newly retired FDNY Chief Jim Riches was a firefighter for 30 years and agrees with Gaudiosi. “Firefighters are more than willing to adapt to any new technology.”

Not all firefighters believe that the transition is that effortless. FDNY firefighter Vincent Anzelone said the transition to new technology is going “slowly. We like to test things out before we go in to battle with them.” Anzelone will retire this year due to repertory illness from 9/11.

High-rise fires in particular have their own challenges that must be met with new tools to conquer them. “High-rise fires are very hot and difficult fires,” retired Chief Riches said, “Water is a necessity, blankets, thermal, over windows to prevent wind driven fire.” Riches also stressed the need for “radios to communicate any pertinent information” and “fans to pressurize stairs.”

Lehman Brothers Director of Life Safety Gaudiosi said other tools needed in a high-rise fire are thermal imaging, cameras, search ropes, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), personal removal device, and radios with a repeater system, SCBA, and rabbit tool. Anzelone also outlined the need for quality radios as well as “knowledge of the building, and working standpipes.”

After September 11, 2001, there have been advances in firefighter safety technology. Personal safety harnesses and communications units have advanced sine 9/11, according to Anzelone. For second alarm fires or more, according to Anzelone, require better radios to hear fellow firefighters and a television to see inside the building. Safety Director Gaudiosi said that since 9/11 there has been “more accountability” and “a better plan of action to reduce the number of men directly involved, moving the command outside the immediate impact area.”

Nevertheless, some firefighters do not see any progress being made. “Fires in hi rise buildings are dangerous,” retired Chief Riches said, “Studies are being conducted to help in fire safety in these buildings, but we are still equally in danger before 9/11 and thereafter.” Anzelone said there are no positive changes and the “radios still suck.”

Radios are one of the most important devices a firefighter carries with him. Retired Captain Gaudiosi said radios are “Everything, communication of changing situation so that firefighters can adjust strategy and tactics, request for help, etcetera.”

“Radio communication is critical,” Retired Chief Riches concurs with Gaudiosi, “Evacuation orders must be heard, changing situations, location of civilians, wind changes, and ventilation, both planned and unplanned. An order which is not heard can be fatal.”

“Radios are one of the best tools a firefighter has,” William G. Dennis said. Dennis was a firefighter who retired five days before September 11, 2001. “Communication is a major factor in fighting fires,” Dennis said, “I can not tell you how many times over my 20-year career that I have been told to evacuate a building. When you are given an order, you follow it. That’s the way we are trained. You are inside and do not see what the chief sees. There could be something like a gas tank or propane leak or any number of dangers that have to be relayed to one another.”

The FDNY’s radios have not changed since the events of September 11. “Firefighter radios still are not able to transmit messages in high-rise buildings, subways, and tunnels,” retired FDNY Deputy Chief Vincent Dunn wrote in his report named, Three Years Later: What has Changed Since 9/11. “Battalion chiefs may carry portable booster radios (each weighing 22 pounds) that enhance communications between the fire ground commanders and firefighters’ portable radios,” Dunn wrote, “This so-called ‘quick fix’ is nowhere near complying with the recommendation of the McKinsey and Co. consulting report.” The McKinsey report, Increasing FDNY’s Preparedness, detailed New York City building owners’ responsibility by recommending that they “install and maintain permanent equipment (an in-building repeater) that picks up and amplifies walkie-talkie signals.”

One of the reasons for this lack of progress is Motorola Corp. In March 2001, Motorola sold FDNY radios with a no bid contract, which is illegal. “Motorola is a very sore subject,” firefighter Dennis said, “I remember the day the FDNY gave us the new Motorola radios. We were never trained on them.” Dennis went on to say that with the FDNY’s old radios, “as soon as you pushed the button your transmission would start immediately. These new radios had some sort of repeater in them so you had to wait two seconds before you could transmit. Messages were being cut short.” Denis’ friend, firefighter Luke Healy, became lost in the basement of a house fire in Richmond Hill Queens. This was the reason why the radios were taken out of service after just one day. “He gave a mayday and not one of the units in the fire building heard it,” Dennis said, “Yet units responding from a mile away heard it on their radios. They issued the new radios to us without field testing them.”

Moreover, “Motorola got this as a no bid contract,” Dennis said. This means that there was no competition for Motorola’s agreement with the FDNY. “The then fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen was given a loan by Motorola in excess of $60,000,” Dennis said.

Firefighter Anzelone is baffled by Motorola’s incompetence. “They do try to innovate for us,” Anzelone said, “but it is hard to believe we can have cell phones and GPS systems with pinpoint accuracy and clarity and all we get is static.”

Retried Chief Riches recalls his experience with Motorola radios on September 11, 2001. “Motorola radios were ineffective on 9/11,” Riches said, “and many firefighters in the North Tower never heard the call to evacuate after the South tower had collapsed. They had two evacuation calls one full hour and one half hour before the North Tower collapsed.”

Motorola’s digital radios failed within one week of operation. The 20-year-old radios were then redistributed to the firefighters which were used on September 11 and failed the fire fighters. “The city of New York and Motorola have had a very friendly and questionable relationship,” Riches said, “No contract, no field test and lies that other cities, Boston and Chicago, had ordered them and used them.”

Motorola’s relationship with the New York City government angers some firefighters. Firefighter Anzelone said that when it comes to the New York City government, “it is all about cost. The government cares nothing about human life.”

Retired firefighter Gaudiosi said the “government can provide the funds to research new technology and purchase equipment. Firefighters should decide what is necessary to do the job.” The government “sometimes red tape at city level will lead to bad purchases,” said retired Chief Riches.

As for lessons people should learn from September 11, 2001, “the best recipe,” former Chief Riches said to prevent tragedy, “is fire drills and planning so that everyone knows what the whistles and orders mean and how to get out.”

Ten Innovations Side Bar

Top Ten Innovations that Have Helped Fire Fighters in High-Rise Buildings since September 11, 2001

from recently retired FDNY Fire Chief Jim Riches

1. Thermal imaging cameras

2. Blankets to cover windows and prevent wind driving into fire apartment

3. Tower ladders to deliver water on fire up to 10 stories

4. Haligan tool to force open doors

5. Bunker gear to protect firefighter from burns

6. Hurst tool for extrication at car accidents

7. Portable repeater to boost radio signals at high rise

8. Sprinklers in buildings to extinguish fires before they escalate

9. Portable radios for firefighters to communicate with each other

10. SCBA mask, which is the air tank on masks that helps firefighters breathe

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