Before fire, toxic WTC skyscraper loomed as painful 9/11 reminder -- Newsday

Newsday.com: Before fire, toxic WTC skyscraper loomed as painful 9/11 reminder --

"NEW YORK - For years, the black-shrouded eyesore looming above the ruined World Trade Center was as painful a reminder of the wounds of Sept. 11 as the 16-acre hole in the ground just below it. Even this year, the body parts of Sept. 11 victims, toxic dust from the trade center and aircraft pieces were still being removed from the former Deutsche Bank building, the tower that no one could agree on how to remove. On Saturday, once again the skyscraper resurrected images from Sept. 11, 2001, with potentially toxic smoke and fire, fears of a building collapse and firefighters killed on the job.

The 41-story tower has been plagued by court battles, toxic contamination, work stoppages and the ongoing search for body parts since the trade center's south tower tore a 15-story gash into it nearly six years ago.

The building was untouched for several months after the attacks, becoming infested with mold from fire sprinklers while over 1 million tons of trade center debris was being removed just across the street.

Deutsche Bank AG appealed to the government and to its insurers to pay to clean up the building, which also contained toxic levels of asbestos, lead, mercury and trade center dust. After several court battles, including a $500 million lawsuit against the city, the state agency in charge of rebuilding the trade center site bought the contaminated building in 2004.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which still owns the tower, and trade center rebuilders needed the land as part of its master plan to rebuild the trade center site. Now plans call for the spot to be home to the fifth planned tower to replace office space destroyed in the attacks.

State officials have reportedly spent far more than the building's $90 million purchase price since then in a tortuous effort to remove the building. The Environmental Protection Agency and other federal regulators have cited contractors several times for violations, including how it disposes of environmentally contaminated material.

In mid-2005, contractors clearing the roof found hundreds of small bones and parts of the jetliners that crashed into the towers. More than 700 bones were recovered, the last found on a ledge in the spring.

In December, officials finally began removing the building's steel facade, beginning the painstaking, floor-by-floor deconstruction of structural steel. But a subcontractor's dispute over payment shut the site for nearly a week. In May, work stopped for another two weeks when a 15-foot-long pipe fell off the building and through the roof of the closest firehouse to ground zero, which has a wall covered by a bronze memorial to the 343 firefighters killed on Sept. 11.

Officials have been optimistic recently that the building, which had been dismantled to the 26th floor this week, was being removed with few problems. State development officials had said repeatedly that the building would be completely removed by the end of this year.

San Jose Mercury News - Fire next to Ground Zero kills 2 firemen

San Jose Mercury News - Fire next to Ground Zero kills 2 firemen:

Fire next to Ground Zero kills 2 firemen

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* Smoke rises from the Deutsche Bank Building, center, bordering ground... (AP Photo/Verena Dobnik)

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NEW YORK—A blaze that killed two firefighters in an abandoned skyscraper being dismantled next to the World Trade Center may have been harder to combat because of plastics required by a federal agency to control asbestos, the governor said Sunday.

The blaze broke out Saturday on the 17th floor of the former Deutsche Bank office building, which has been a toxic site since it was damaged by falling wreckage when the trade center's twin towers collapsed and contaminated by toxic dust.

During demolition work, the federal Environmental Protection Agency had required that polyurethane sheets be used to prevent asbestos and other harmful debris from escaping, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said at a news conference.

The polyurethane "may in fact have made this fire harder to fight," Spitzer said.

Questions about other complications also were emerging on Sunday, including why the partially gutted building's water supply did not work, forcing firefighters to run hoses up to the 17th floor.

"The standpipe was not operating. We don't know why yet," fire department spokesman Frank Gribbon said.

Spitzer said the latest air-quality tests for asbestos and other fine particulate matter had been negative.

The once 40-story building was abandoned after the attacks because of extensive damage from wreckage falling from the towers and contamination by toxic dust containing asbestos, dioxins, lead and other materials. It had been largely gutted by demolition crews and workers have been taking its steel skeleton apart in pieces.

The cause of the fire was unknown, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it might have been fueled by plywood, boxes and other flammable supplies related to the dismantling work.

A worker in the building discovered the fire on the 17th floor, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said.

More than five dozen fire vehicles, carrying more than 270 firefighters, were sent to the site as pieces of burning debris fell to the streets. Smoke was visible from midtown Manhattan and the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.

Nearby buildings were evacuated, and residents waited for hours before they were allowed to return.

"We heard this crackling," said Elizabeth Hughes, who saw the fire from her rooftop deck across from the Deutsche Bank tower. "And then a huge fire that went up three floors fast. It was massive."

The building's structure was secure and in no danger of falling, Bloomberg said.

The firefighters who died, Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33, were trapped and inhaled a great deal of smoke, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

The collapse of the twin Trade Center towers across the street killed 343 firefighters. Eleven of them came from the same firehouse where Beddia and Graffagnino were based.