With the culmination of the Deutsche Bank trial last week, in which all three defendants were found “not guilty,” there is a movement to reopen the case so that a tragedy such as the one that, in 2007, took the lives of NYC firefighters Joseph Graffagnino Jr. and Robert Beddia, will never happen again.
Last summer the New York State legislature passed a bill, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Squadron and supported by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, that established a task force to address the problems that may have led to the incident. When the fire broke out, firefighters did not have architectural plans for the building and essentially went into the blaze blindfolded. Once inside, they confronted a nightmarish labyrinth of sealed plywood hatches and thick plastic sheeting.
In Squadron’s own words, “In any privately-owned or city-owned building, firefighters and first responders can be sure that if the rules were followed, everything will be consistent. In state-and public-authority owned buildings, they can’t be sure of that.”
