Deutsche Bank(WTC) Collapse 8-23-07, 2 Brothers injured

[Guest]

Initial reports from Foxnews indicate that in the last half hour, a collapse occured at the site of this weekends fire at Ground Zero. Reporting up to two Firefighters Hospitalized and 4 people injured.....Ill follow up when the story breaks on the website.

[Guest]

This building is a nightmare. How many more guys are going to get injured or killed here. This has to stop.

http://www.wnbc.com/news/13959285/detail.html?dl=mainclick

Two firefighters and two construction workers were injured Thursday when debris fell from a scaffolding at the Deutsche Bank in Manhattan, where two firefighters were killed battling a fire last Saturday.

Sources said both of the firefighters sustained serious head injuries from what may have been a fallen tool.

The extent of the other injuries is unknown. Sources said the debris fell from the north side of the building from the 23rd floor.

Demolition work at the former Deutsche Bank skyscraper was suspended after Saturday's blaze, but work has continued to remove debris and contain toxic material in the condemned building across from the World Trade Center site.

Edited August 23, 2007 by nutty1

[Guest]

Fox Reporting: Scafolding Collapse

[Shantz02 0]

CBS reported a construction jack fell. One FF with minor injuries, the other with a head injury.

[firemoose827 324]

God...lets hope the head injury isn't serious. Get that building taken down! Keep us posted. Were the firefighters part of the ongoing investigation, or from "10" House across the street?

[Guest]

Fox Reports: 2 Firefighters are in stable condition, however, suffering from serious head injuries. Not sounding good.

Also, confirming it was some sort of jack.

[Guest]

Anything new yet?

[Guest]

Looks like they getting ready for news covage at the hospital

http://media.myfoxny.com/live/index.html

[Dondestro 9]

I watched as it happened...i am working accross the west side highway on on the search for human remains. when we saw plywood flying through the air like a picece of paper. Than one of my guys called me and told me there were two hurt firefighters in front of gate 2 of the world trade center on ceder st between washington and west st.

[Guest]

From WNBC NY

NEW YORK -- Part of the scaffolding that surrounded a condemned ground zero skyscraper fell Thursday, injuring two firefighters, the Fire Department said.

Two firefighters died battling a blaze in the same building last week.

City officials said a piece of equipment fell from a high floor through a sidewalk shed, injuring the firefighters who were standing underneath. The firefighters were hospitalized in stable condition, one with a head injury.

In a statement, the Fire Department said a worker was entering an elevator on the 23rd floor when he lost control of a pallet jack, a motorized lifting tool.

"The pallet jack crashed through the hoistway door and fell through a construction shed on the ground level. Two firefighters standing under the shed were injured when there was a partial collapse," said the statement.

The demolition company, John Galt Corp., is being dropped from the site, meaning officials will soon be looking for someone to take over the $150 million teardown.

Prior to the accident, the name John Galt was known largely as a character in the Ayn Rand novel "Atlas Shrugged".

It may take another fictional hero to complete the demolition.

"There are a number of very good abatement companies who just did not want to compete for this job, given those complexities, given the concerns of the community," said Coletti.

Any prospective firm will have to have the experience -- and the insurance -- to go where few others are willing.

"There may be any number of companies whose insurance companies just won't insure this project, which will then shrink the pool further," said Coletti.

The building has been empty since it was crippled and coated with toxic debris by the terror attacks on the World Trade Center. It was being dismantled floor by floor as workers stripped asbestos. Once 41 stories, it stood at 26 when the fire broke out.

Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino died on the building's 14th floor, a few floors below where the blaze broke out.

Currently, the only work being done on site is cleanup and resealing the contaminants, but even that is proving dangerous. Officials have said they will wait until the results of the fire investigation to restart the demolition project.

One former company at the site, Gilbane Building Company, said it would at least consider bidding on the project.

"When and if there is a solicitation we will review and look at it, and based on what it is, we may or may not have an interest," said Wes Cotter, a Gilbane spokesman.

Private contractors are working on the state-owned building, while multiple local, state and federal agencies have a hand in the decontamination and deconstruction.

On top of all that, local residents have become outspoken activists against any moves they believe could create further health hazards, and the remains of Sept. 11 victims have been found on the building years after the attacks, further delaying demolition.

The skyscraper's owner, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., bought the tower three years ago and took over the removal project. During demolition, the city Department of Buildings issued a separate permit for each floor before it could be taken down.

"The Deutsche Bank project, the numbers are so big I almost thought about going back into the demolition business -- but New York is a whole separate planet in this stuff, completely different from the rest of the country," said Mike Taylor, executive director of the National Demolition Association.

The job has dragged on for years, but in the rest of the country, a typical demolition job takes about a month, Taylor said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Tuesday "there was only one contractor willing to work on taking down the building, as far as I know."

A day later, that company was told it would be taken off the job.

And as difficult as it may be, Coletti said there is one thing all the various agencies, companies, and community residents can agree on: "Everybody wants that building down."

[BIGRED1 71]

Just demo the whole thing. Stop worrying about asbestos and start worrying about people getting crushed by things falling from the sky. I know that there are remains in there but i think they have shown that the building is not stable anymore after 1) a building collapsed on top of it 2) it received fire damage 3) is starting to collapse itself.

[Guest partyrock]

I know this whole thing is stressful, but lets get some facts out here first. Nothing collapsed yesterday. The scaffolding was severely damaged in the fire and they were working on dismantleing it. A worker accidentally sent a powered jack over the side of the building causing yesterdays injuries. The building has been swept from top to bottom for remains resulting in over 700 pieces recovered. The clean-up of the building to remove all of the asbestos and other hazardous materials was reportedly completed the week before fire. Part of the announcement was the first media tour of the site that didn't require tyvek suits and respirators. Why ff's are still sitting there babysitting this disaster of a construction site is f-ing beyond me. Get an real demo company in there and take the thing down like you would take down any other building. And while I'm on this, why the hell is this building so special that it had to be scrubbed down and taken apart piece by piece. All of the hazardous material in that building is in EVERY BUILDING BUILT BEFORE THE 70's. Look around Manhattan sometime. There is more construction and demolition going on now than I have seen in the last 20 years and it all happens without the political BS surrounding the Deutsche Bank. Most of the buildings being torn down are full of asbestos, led, mercury, etc but no one cares. The only thing special about the building is its address. Its time to tear it down like any other building.