NEW YORK, NY September 19, 2007 —Following last month's fatal fire at the former Deutsche Bank building, the City Council is holding a hearing later this morning to investigate why residents weren't kept informed on the day of the blaze. WNYC's Bob Hennelly has more.

The Bloomberg administration has conceded that on the day of the seven alarm fire that killed two firefighters, existing protocols to keep residents in the loop failed. Now, the Council wants to use that day and this summer's MTA flooding fiasco to better understand existing gaps in emergency notification.

The hearing comes more than 6 years after September 11th, when poor communications proved catastrophic for first responders and the public. Several technologies being considered include a reverse 911 system and a combination of broadcast e-mail and text messaging. For WNYC, I'm Bob Hennelly.