Firefighters Die in Blaze by Ground Zero

By VERENA DOBNIK

NEW YORK – A seven-alarm fire ripped through an abandoned skyscraper next to ground zero in Lower Manhattan Saturday, killing two firefighters who were responding to the blaze.

Officers at the scene were preventing nearby residents from returning to their homes, telling them that authorities were concerned the former Deutsche Bank office building, vacant since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks turned it into a toxic nightmare, could fall. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that fear turned out to be unfounded.

Two firefighters were killed, and five or six others were taken to a hospital but were expected to be released, Bloomberg said. No civilians were hurt.

Construction crews had already dismantled 14 of the building’s 40 stories – reaching the 26th floor on Tuesday. Some firefighters used stairs to reach the burning upper floors of the building, just steps from where 343 firefighters lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known. Smoke pouring from the burning building was visible from midtown Manhattan and the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.

The acrid smell of smoke, which hung over the neighborhood for days after Sept. 11, returned to lower Manhattan along with the wail of emergency vehicles. More than three dozen fire vehicles, with more than 160 firefighters, responded to the blaze as pieces of burning debris fell from the building to the streets.

Residents said they weren’t allowed home even to rescue their pets.

"We heard this crashing," said Elizabeth Hughes, who saw the fire start from her rooftop deck across from the tower. "And then a huge fire that went up three floors fast. It was massive. … Oh my God! I can’t even go in and get my cats."

The 1.4-million square foot office tower was contaminated with toxic dust and debris after the World Trade Center’s south tower collapsed into it. Bloomberg said the chemicals in the building did not present a significant health risk.

Efforts to dismantle it were halted by a labor dispute last year, along with the ongoing search for the remains of attack victims.

City officials announced in June they had completed recovery efforts at the structure. More than 700 human remains were found at the site.