Deutsche Bank firegeezer on 21 Feb 2008 04:57 pm
Heavy Fines For Deutsche Bank Contractors
FINES AND HEADACHES CONTINUE TO PILE UP FOR the contractors who were dismantling the former Deutsche Bank building in Manhattan.
Bovis Lend Lease and its sub-contractor John Gault Corporation were performing the asbestos removal and dismantling of the building when a fire broke out last August that killed two FDNY firefighters.
On Tuesday OSHA announced that they are proposing a fine of $464,600 against the contractors for 44 safety violations including:
A missing section of standpipe, insufficient water supply and water pressure, blocked and unmarked exits, a lack of fire extinguishers, and allowing smoking — which fire investigators have said was the likely cause of the blaze. The contractors exposed workers “to death or serious injury from falls, falling objects, electrocution and the inability to exit the tower swiftly and safely” in the event of a fire, the agency said. (New York Times)
The New York Times is also reporting that:
The office of the Manhattan district attorney is conducting a broad criminal investigation into the deaths and the entire project, which was mired in delays, multimillion-dollar cost overruns and regulatory red tape long before the fire halted the deconstruction of the tower. The criminal inquiry is focused in part on failures by the city, including the Fire and the Buildings Departments, and prosecutors in (the district attorney’s) office have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury.
They are also examining how the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and Bovis selected Galt, a company that had never before performed such work. City investigators had cautioned development officials against hiring Galt; the company was an arranged marriage of sorts between a scaffolding company with no demolition experience and executives from a company called Safeway Environmental, which city officials suspected of having ties to organized crime.
Last week the family of one of the firefighters filed a lawsuit against the contractors and some city agencies (see The Gothamist HERE.) and the relatives of the other FF are expected to file also.
