Squadron Holds Summit Following Fire at Tribeca Telecom Building

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Weeks after the May 18 fire in an Ace Hardware on the West Broadway side of 60 Hudson Street, the smell of smoke still hung heavy in the store as workers cleaned up the premises and prepared the store for reopening.
CARL GLASSMAN / TRIBECA TRIB
Weeks after the May 18 fire in an Ace Hardware on the West Broadway side of 60 Hudson Street, the smell of smoke still hung heavy in the store as workers cleaned the premises. Fire officials said the fire posed no threat to the rest of the building.

A fire last month in a hardware store at 60 Hudson Street reignited concern among some neighbors over the risks posed by 80,000 gallons of diesel fuel stored in the building.

 

State Sen. Daniel Squadron on June 4 brought together officials from various city agencies, representatives of the building's owners and several residents to talk about the threat, if any, the fire posed to the building and the neighborhood. Sixty Hudson Street, the former Western Union Building, has long been the target of complaints by neighbors over generator noise and the storage of large amounts of diesel fuel.

 

"In our mind there was no risk, where the fire was in the hardware store, to have any effect on the building proper," Division 1 Fire Chief John Bley said.

 

The May 18 fire could not have spread to the main building, Bley said, because the wall between the store and the building has a "three-hour rating"—it would take three hours for the fire to burn through the wall.

 

Fire officials said the flames were extinguished less than 30 minutes after the call was received.

 

Assistant Fire Marshall John Lynn said the fire ignited in electrical equipment in the store, an Ace Hardware that fronts onto West Broadway.

"It did create a lot of smoke," Lynn said, "but it was a small, contained fire caused accidentally."

 

The city allows the building to store more diesel fuel than is normally permitted by law. As a condition for the variance, issued four years ago, the Department of Buildings required the owners to beef up safeguards against a fire that could ignite the fuel.

 

State Sen. Daniel Squadron, right, convened a meeting of officials whose agencies are responsible for oversight of 60 Hudson Street.
CARL GLASSMAN / TRIBECA TRIB
State Sen. Daniel Squadron, right, convened a meeting June 3 of city officials whose agencies have oversight of 60 Hudson Street. Out of frame, at right, is Councilwoman Margaret Chin.

According to Donald Ranshte, Director of Community Affairs for the Department of Buildings, each generator on floors where fuel storage exceeds city code is in its own room, which can withstand fire for up to two hours. In addition, sprinkler systems on those floors were upgraded and a fire safety director is on duty 24 hours a day. Representatives from the three city agencies that regulate the building’s safety, the Fire Department, Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Buildings, visited 60 Hudson Street a total of 247 times last year and 54 times so far this year, said Brian Maddox, a spokesman for the building.

 

Concerns over the building’s safety has led Squadron and some neighbors to press the management of 60 Hudson Street for ways to notify the public about unusual testing or emergencies.

 

Maddox said the building’s management has suggested providing information in one of its windows and they are looking for other ways to improve communication with neighbors.

 

Nearby residents first organized against the building’s loud generators and air conditioners in 1996, calling themselves Neighbors Against Noise. The group switched focus in 2002 when it was revealed that the building contained illegal quantities of diesel fuel. Four years later, despite heavy opposition by the group and local elected officials, the city legalized the fuel storage and, along wth it, mandated new safety measures to protect the building against a massive fire.