Nearly five months after the inferno at the former Deutsche Bank building killed two firefighters, the FDNY’s safety recommendations haven’t been followed and work cannot resume, officials said yesterday.
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said the FDNY has not “signed off” on the project – a major obstacle in finally demolishing the ugly reminder of 9/11.
“We are not going to get into too much of this, but I can say concerns are being addressed,” Scoppetta said after a City Council hearing yesterday on the FDNY’s new building-inspection program.
After the Aug. 18 blaze at 130 Liberty St. it emerged that the FDNY failed to conduct regular inspections of the building. As a result, the department increased its weekly inspections citywide and also stationed a battalion chief at the former bank building full-time.
Avi Schick, the embattled chief of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., said in October that work to remove the remaining 27 floors of the abandoned building would resume last month. Schick has yet to publicly set a new date.
Sources say wrangling between the LMDC, the state agency in charge of the project, and its contractor, Bovis Lend Lease, is causing delays.
The LMDC declined to comment.