Heads Roll in FDNY After Deadly Fire

Three officials demoted after blaze kills 2 in uninspected building
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 27, 2007 3:33 PM CDT
Heads Roll in FDNY After Deadly Fire
Linda Graffagnino, center, follows behind firefighters carrying the casket with her husband, Firefighter Joseph Graffagnino, after a funeral service at St. Ephrem Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn, New York, Thursday August 23, 2007. Graffagnino, 33, and Robert Beddia, 53, died of smoke inhalation...   (Associated Press)

Three top FDNY officials were demoted today in the wake of the Deutsche Bank fire that claimed the lives of two firefighters. The August 18 blaze has been blamed on careless smoking, but the department neglected required inspections on the condemned building. The commissioner also ordered inspections of all construction and demolition projects in the city, the Daily News reports.

Department officials had no pre-fire plan for the building and had not inspected the standpipe that supplied water to the structure, which failed during the fire. Workers were dismantling the Ground Zero building, across the street from the World Trade Center site, when a cigarette ignited construction materials. Officials say smoking was rampant in the structure. (More New York City stories.)

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