Scaffold Collapse at Deutsche Bank Building, Firefighters and Workers Injured

As if there could be no good news coming from the Ground Zero building, at the crippled and burned Deutsche Bank tower, a pallet jack fell from the 23rd floor this afternoon. The jack, a piece of heavy equipment on the side facing the pit at the former Trade Center site, fell on a shed, injuring firemen and construction workers, one seriously. Fire trucks carrying crews who were holding down the fort lined Church St. with responding firemen, while one of their brethren, Joseph Graffagnino, was buried at services heavily attended by other firefighters today.

This all comes directly on the heels of the news that the company doing the cleanup of toxic materials and erecting the scaffolding is being fired from the job. The John Galt Corporation, a firm created by former executives of another construction firm which had been banned from city contracts, was just placed in default on their work there. This occurred after two firemen, Graffagnino and Robert Beddia, died responding to a fire at the building last Saturday. A standpipe, that should have carried water to the higher building floors and was to have been maintained by Galt, was not functioning and was not fully assembled at the time.