News

NEW YORK, NY August 22, 2007 —At last night's Community Board One public hearing on last weekend's Deutsche bank fire, questions surfaced about another casualty of September 11th - CUNY's Fitterman Hall. The 15-story academic building was badly damaged in the attacks.

REPORTER: It has remained vacant while CUNY developed plans for its decontamination and demolition. Paul Stein, of the New York Public Employees Federation, quizzed city officials about Fitterman's safety in light of the fatal fire at Deutsche Bank. He quoted directly from CUNY's website which disclosed that as of this March, the standpipe in Fitterman needed to be repaired.

STEIN: Have any of the agencies here go to Fitterman Hall and inspected the fire stand pipers system and rested it, pressurized it and made sure that it works?

REPORTER: NYFD Fire Chief Sal Cassano said fire inspectors would go through Fitterman Hall as early as today. Before the Deutsche Bank fire, the New York State Dormitory Authority said Fitterman Hall would take a year and a half to deconstruct and another 2 and a half years to rebuild.