The Deutsche Bank Fire Analysis

A fantastic document: the gap in the Deutsche Bank standpipe, where a piece of pipe was missing. From the pic, it seems to me that it may have been purposefully removed. Firefighters pumped water into the standpipe from the sidewalk, only to see it spew out in the basement where the standpipe was broken. The excuses so far include "they broke during the 2001 terrorist attacks and were never repaired" and "regulators shut the sprinklers off after 9/11 because pumps driving the water were contaminated." Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta admitted that commanders sent more than 100 firefighters into the burning, toxic high-rise with no plan of attack.

Wiki writes: With a gaping hole exposing the building to the elements, black mold severely contaminated the building and its ventilation system. The fire sprinkler system (I assume at the original fire) had sprayed excessive water in the building, which caused black mold to grow, making the building unsafe. I had been long wondering what toxic dust may have been in the bombed out building. Now I know: it was black mold from the Twin Towers and the building itself. Sick Building , indeed.



Stachybotrys Chartarum (atra) is a greenish-black fungus found worldwide that colonizes particularly well in high-cellulose material, such as straw, hay, wet leaves, dry wall, carpet, wall paper, fiber-board, ceiling tiles, thermal insulation, etc. It is found after flooding or hidden wet places like ventilation systems. Interesting. I wonder if it grows in Israel's dry desert climate. Stachybotrys produces a mycotoxin that causes animal and human mycotoxicosis. This type of mold is thought to be a possible cause of the “sick building syndrome”. Children’s exposure to air-borne Stachybotrys spores is thought most likely to cause pulmonary hemosiderosis (bleeding in the lungs). There is no threshold dangerous spore exposure level by the U.S. EPA or any other health administrations.

After years of haggling and trying to come to terms over what to do, the City, State, LMDC, PANY, and insurance companies were finally able to deal on Deutsche Bank last year, which set in motion the deconstruction. The deconstruction process was repeatedly delayed because of air quality concerns (necessitating all the additional plywood and plastic sheeting for controlling emissions from the building). Work on the building has been halted now, but if you think the situation with the Deutsche Bank is bad, consider that CUNY's Fiterman Hall remains just as it was shortly after 9/11.

Conclusion: The fire that broke out on 9/11 was fought with massive water sprinkling. After the fire was extinguished, valves were closed to stop the sprinklers and flooding. Some enthusiast even dismantled pieces of the main standpipe. The soaking caused the massive development of black mold colonies and generation of mycotoxin dust. When fire broke out a month ago, firefighters blindly walked up to the 14th floor but the standpipe remained dry. Two of them died. A tragedy of errors.