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07/16/2008 06:21 PM

City Report Address Fire Safety At Construction Sites

By: NY1 News

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A new city report released today looks to apply the lessons learned from last year's deadly blaze at the former Deustche Bank building to improve fire safety at construction sites.

The report issued 33 recommendations, including daily inspections of standpipes that are used to funnel water to higher floors. The full standpipe is to be inspected each week.

A broken standpipe prevented water from reaching the Deutsche Bank building's upper floors. Two firefighters died battling that blaze.

The report also called for streamlining communication between the FDNY, the Buildings Department and the Department of Environmental Protection with the help of a new interagency computer system.

"New York City cannot grow and thrive unless its builds, but construction work is not going to come at the expense of safety," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "Safety is and always will be our first priority."

The mayor said many of the recommendations have already begun to be implemented.

“It's about reducing risk,” said Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler. "Reducing risk to workers, reducing risk to police officers, reducing risk to fire fighters. And reducing more risk to the public in general."

The FDNY is also working on a $5.5 million computer system, including wireless handheld devices, to share information with other city agencies and help track site inspections.

“This will integrate the operation of all of those computer systems, and all of the systems that we have at the fire department, together with systems at other agencies,” said Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta. “That is, I think, the most important aspect of this report.”

While city officials have begun to implement improvements, others will need state or federal approval.