August 18, 2007
Fire at Building Damaged on Sept. 11
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 5:54 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- A four-alarm fire in the abandoned Deustche Bank skyscraper sent a plume of gray smoke trailing above ground zero Saturday afternoon as firetrucks and police cars raced through lower Manhattan to reach a building already decimated by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The tower, left vacant since 9/11 turned it into a toxic nightmare, had flames on multiple floors, according to the Fire Department. Construction crews had already dismantled 14 of the building's 40 stories, reaching the 26th floor on Tuesday.

The cause of the fire was unknown, but smoke pouring from the burning building was visible from midtown Manhattan and the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. NYU Downtown Hospital reported its emergency room was treating at least one patient brought in from the blaze.

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.

The building at 130 Liberty St. has become a constant headache for redevelopers in the nearly six years since the attacks. The 1.4 million square foot office tower stood as a downtown Manhattan eyesore, contaminated with toxic dust and debris after the World Trade Center's south tower collapsed into it.

Efforts to dismantle the skyscraper 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 after recovering more than 700 human remains from the site.

There was another weeklong shutdown of work in May, when a 22-foot pipe fell through the roof of a nearby firehouse from the 35th floor.

Two years ago, redevelopment officials said the building contained excessive levels of seven hazardous susbstances, including dioxin and lead. As part of the tear down, a dozen air quality monitors were installed in the area around the building.