The Associated Press
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
FDNY firefighters tackle the fire at the former Deutsche Bank tower last August. |
NEW YORK — The father of a New York City firefighter killed last year in a skyscraper blaze led a downtown rally Saturday to promote better safety standards for firefighters and construction workers.
"The fire codes and building codes should be much stricter and more enforceable," said Joseph Graffagnino Sr., whose son, also named Joseph, was one of two firefighters who died battling a blaze at the former Deutsche Bank tower.
The building was heavily damaged on Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center's south tower collapsed into it, leaving a trail of toxic debris.
It was in the process of being stripped of asbestos and dismantled, floor by floor, when a fire broke out on Aug. 18, 2007. The fire, believed to have been started by a worker's discarded cigarette, killed Graffagnino and fellow firefighter Robert Beddia and led to a grand jury probe.
"This never should have happened," Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer told about 150 firefighters and supporters at the rally. "This building is still standing, and that's a failure of government. This building must be taken down. It must be deconstructed."
Jason Post, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said the Fire Department has beefed up its building inspection program since the fatal fire.
"The Deutsche Bank fire was a tragic incident. Nothing is more important to the City than firefighter safety," Post said. "We have learned from the Deutsche Bank fire lessons about how to protect first responders."
The protesters gathered in front of the building, still shrouded in netting, and marched a few blocks for another rally at City Hall Park.
Speakers linked the deaths of the two firefighters to this year's spike in construction deaths, including two crane collapses that killed a total of nine people.
"This must stop now," said civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel. "New Yorkers cannot become collateral damage as a result of the construction boom. We say no to that. You can have development but you must have safety. You can't have one without the other."
City Councilman Tony Avella accused real estate developers of blocking reform.
"The real estate industry puts money ahead of the firefighters, puts money ahead of the construction workers," he said. "It puts money ahead of the people of this city."
