| At the funeral for firefighter Joseph Graffagnino who was killed in the fire at the Duetsche Bank building seven weeks ago, Michael Bloomberg said this:
We owe you, and every member of the FDNY, answers to the difficult questions that this fire raised. We're going to get those answers, and those answers will be followed by actions.
At the funeral for Robert Beddia, another firefighter killed in that fire, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said:
We will continue to conduct an aggressive, comprehensive investigation and it will take us wherever it leads us
It's now seven weeks since tragedy visited ground zero again and what is being revealed about the "investigation" into what lead to that tragedy is disgraceful to say the least.
The Uniformed Firefighters Association and the Uniformed Fire Officers Association just sent out this press release that reads in part:
Both City Fire Unions Say FDNY Brass Actively Seeking to Hinder Deutsche Bank Fatal Fire Investigation
Today the boards of both the Uniformed Firefighters Association and the Uniformed Fire Officers Association held a joint press conference to address the active effort by the Fire Commissioner and his staff to hinder the investigations and the cloud of scandal hanging over the FDNY regarding the fatal Deutsche Bank fire.
"The entire FDNY is suffering under the cloud of scandal and investigation," said Steve Cassidy, UFA President. "Now more than seven weeks after the tragedy the FDNY's own investigators have been forbidden to examine pre-fire issues which led up to the deaths of two New York City Firefighters."
"We find it incredible that when a pipe from the Deutsche Bank Building fell through the roof of the neighboring firehouse, necessitating a meeting with the FDNY's Manhattan Borough Commander, that even this did not prompt him to require an immediate building inspection before deconstruction work could continue," Cassidy said.
The UFA leader also pointed to recent actions by FDNY's top leadership, including having a chief escort the criminal attorneys hired by the city into Engine 10/Ladder 10 so he could download the company's computer hard drive.
Jack McDonnell, president of the UFOA said,"The Chief of Department advised all of his staff to cease email communication about the Deutsche Bank Building and then the Manhattan Borough Commander followed this by dispatching a similar order to Chiefs throughout Manhattan."
He continued, "The three reassigned Fire Officers are not the problem, it was the FDNY's responsibility to insist that all rebuilding efforts at the WTC site be placed before the FDNY at every stage. They abdicated control to the LMDC and did not exercise their authority as per the Administrative Code.
-All emphasis mine
This is ridiculous. New York's bravest deserve far better than this. The Mayor and Fire Chief promised to "get those answers" and follow things "wherever it leads us." Instead there seems to be an active and overt effort to scuttle this investigation.
That, friends, is shameful. |
