Safety first, that was the main concern at a hearing Wednesday surrounding the demolition of the former Deutsche Bank Building.

The meeting began with a moment of silence in memory of the two firefighters killed fighting a fire at the building on August 18th. But the fire that day was not discussed, since it is still under investigation.

The chairman of the Committee on Lower Manhattan Redevelopment said this hearing was meant to focus on the future.

"We have convened this hearing to make sure the decontamination and deconstruction of the Deutsche Bank building proceeds quickly and safely," said City Councilman Alan Gerson.

The collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11th left the building contaminated with toxic materials. Efforts to take it down have been stopped several times by environmental concerns, the search for human remains, and construction accidents -- including the fire, which was blamed on careless smoking and safety lapses by the previous demolition subcontractor, John Galt.

A new company is on board to head up the demolition process and its president says for him, it's personal.

"We're in the neighborhood. We're right down on 80 Broad Street and New York is our home," said Robert McNamara of LVI Services.

The way the building comes down is being changed. The old plan was to clean and demolish floor by floor. The new plan means cleaning the building entirely first, making sure it's toxin free, and then demolishing it.

Other new measures involve emergency safety at the sight. Part of these new measures will be building two staircases from the basement to the top floor, creating a protected route for firefighters.

"There is and will be round-the-clock, 24/7 site safety personnel," said Avi Schick of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. "These are people who will be there whether work is going on or not, every day of the week, every hour until the building is down."

No timetable has been set as to when the demolition work will start again, but everyone who spoke at the hearing agreed it will be very soon. When it does start, the project is expected to last about a year.

- Cindi Avila