NEW YORK (AP) — 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 yesterday.
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 contaminated by dust and damaged by falling wreckage when the trade center’s Twin Towers collapsed.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency required the use of polyurethane sheets to prevent asbestos and other harmful debris from escaping during demolition, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said at a press conference.
The polyurethane “may in fact have made this fire harder to fight,” said Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat.
Questions about other complications were emerging yesterday, 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.
Mr. Spitzer said the latest air-quality tests for asbestos and other fine particulate matter were negative.
The once 40-story building was abandoned after the September 11 attacks because of extensive damage from wreckage falling from the towers and contamination by toxic dust containing asbestos, dioxins, lead and other materials. Demolition crews largely gutted the structure, and workers have been taking apart its steel skeleton in pieces.
The cause of the fire was unknown, but Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said it might have been fueled by plywood, boxes and other flammable supplies related to the dismantling work.
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.
The firefighters who died, Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33, were trapped and inhaled a great deal of smoke, Mr. Bloomberg said.
The collapse of the Twin Towers across the street killed 343 firefighters. Eleven of them came from the same firehouse where Mr. Beddia and Mr. Graffagnino were based.
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