Bovis Violation Mirrors That of Fatal Fire
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If a fire had broken out in the Trump SoHo building, the site of a construction accident that left one person dead this week, firefighters would have been unable to access one of the standpipes to carry water to the upper floors, according to detailed list of fire safety violations at the site that was obtained by The New York Sun yesterday.
After the accident Monday, Department of Buildings inspectors issued the violations to a general construction contractor, Bovis Lend Lease, the same company that is under criminal investigation after a broken standpipe in the former Deutsche Bank building led to the death of two firefighters six months ago.
The standpipe carries water from firefighters’ hoses to upper floors in the event of a fire.
In the August incident, the standpipe had been broken off in the basement of the building and exits were blocked, leaving firefighters battling a blaze with insufficient water and few escape routes out of the toxic ground zero building.
At the Trump SoHo building, firefighters may have encountered some of the same obstacles had a fire ignited — a possibility because workers were heating concrete on the top floors using a small open flamed heater, a common construction practice.
Although the standpipe was intact in this instance, “the Siamese connection was blocked by netting, debris, and construction containers,” one of the violations said. The Department of Buildings violations noted that in addition to a blocked Siamese connection, which allows firefighters to connect their hoses to the building’s standpipes, there were no fire extinguishers and no fire hatch on the top floors of the building near the temporary heater, known as a salamander.
“The Building Code requires a fire-rated escape hatch when a contractor is heating concrete with temporary heating devices. No escape hatch was installed,” the violation stated.
The buildings commissioner, Patricia Lancaster, said the department was taking seriously the fire issues that came to light in the inspections that followed accident.
“It is of concern that Bovis has violations such as these on this job site,” she said. “As our forensic engineers work to complete the preliminary investigation, we will take the matter into serious consideration when determining the circumstances under which this job might move forward.”
The Trump SoHo building, at 246 Spring St., has two Siamese connections with two standpipes connecting to each one, one on Spring Street and one on Varick Street. Only the Spring Street connection was blocked, according to officials.
Buildings inspectors who visited the site last week did not issue fire safety violations, meaning the debris may have been piled up against the Siamese connection after their visit.
Construction work was stopped at the building on Monday after a construction worker was thrown from the 42nd floor to the ground when wooden boards collapsed as wet concrete was being poured on them.
The concrete company that Bovis Lend Lease employed on the project, Difama Concrete, is now under scrutiny for possible mob connections. The subcontractor employed by Bovis Lend Lease for the Deutsche Bank project was discovered to have links to the mob.
A representative for Bovis Lend Lease did not respond to phone calls and an e-mail message requesting comment.
The Department of Buildings is investigating the Trump SoHo incident, and the Manhattan district attorney has assigned an investigator to monitor the case.
City Council members yesterday said they would be calling an emergency hearing next week to discuss the level of construction in the city in the wake of the accident.
“We hope to come away with some immediate steps that will make incidents like the one that took the life of Yuriy Vanchytskyy and injured three other workers as rare as possible,” the council said in a statement, referring to the construction worker who died this week.