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At Fiterman, Lessons Learned From a Fire
“We’re deeply affected by the events in August at Deutsche Bank,” Iris Weinshall, vice chancellor of Borough of Manhattan Community College, told a public forum at the school last month. Lessons learned from the fire, she said, are “an opportunity to inform our own process.” Weinshall, however, was quick to draw distinctions between the college’s former building, at 30 West Broadway, and the Deutsche Bank building before it caught fire. At 15 stories, Fiterman is much smaller. And unlike the bank building, where decontamination and deconstruction took place floor by floor, she said, Fiterman will be cleaned before it is taken down. She added that consultations are ongoing with Fire Department officials, who visit the site regularly. Mindful of the deadly conditions at the Deutsche Bank building that included blocked stairwells and non-working standpipes, Weinshall said the Fire Department is getting to know the building well, and routinely tests the standpipes. “The Fire Department is as knowledgeable about this building and what’s in the building as they probably ever are going to be,” she said. Andy Bachman, project manager with Tishman Construction, described wayfinding measures inside the building—marked and lit paths to stairways and posted egress plans—meant to head off the disorientation that firefighters faced in the Deutsche Bank fire. “We want to make sure that firemen and anyone who goes into the building can find their way around safely and egress the building in the event of an emergency,” he explained. Monitors around the site have so far registered no high readings for contaminants from the building, according to Ben Lewis, the air quality consultant on the project. Lower Manhattan will be a pilot area for a special messaging plan—e-mail and text messaging alerts—in the event that high levels of toxins are released or some other crisis occurs. “It’s being pushed as quickly as is responsible,” said Seth Cummins, chief of staff for the city’s Office of Emergency Management. Several people attending the meeting, however, questioned the city’s plan. “Isn’t there some other human way, some low-tech way, that you could call people up?” asked Jane Young, a Borough of Manhattan Community College professor. “With older people, and people who are incommunicado, it’s just not going to work.” “We need to look no further than Indian Point,” added Joan Greenbaum, a health and safety officer representing City University’s professional workers. “They have a phone system that dials every number in a 25-mile radius. It’s there. Call Verizon. They have it.” Officials cannot say when decontamination will begin. The plan is still under review by regulatory agencies. The work so far, overseen by the state’s Dormitory Authority, has been limited to the erection of scaffolding so the building can be tightly sealed. The dust-covered interior remains much as it was after the building was fatally damaged by the collapse of the former 7 World Trade Center.
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