Fire at WTC Site May Smolder for Months Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [and Rudy's love fest begins to show some cracks around the edges... See third article. According to Channel 5 (local Fox News, barf), the firefighters still on duty are ready to stop work in sympathy with the Families .... ] The NY Daily News - Nov 1, 2001 http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-11-01/News_and_Views/City_Beat/a-130539.asp Fire May Smolder for Months by Greg Gittrich Daily News Staff Writer Girders of red-hot steel driven as many as six stories below ground by the collapse of the World Trade Center are fueling an underground blaze that threatens to smolder and cough up smoke for months. The unprecedented structural fire does not have enough oxygen to rapidly devour its enormous fuel supply -- desks, carpets, computers, paper, cars and other combustible material contained in and under the 110-story twin towers, experts say. "So what you've got is a smoldering situation," said George Miller, president of the National Association of State Fire Marshals. "Judging from my 32 years of experience, this could burn for a long time." Exactly how long "a long time" is, no one knows for sure. But fire engineers and safety experts told the Daily News that the blaze likely will continue burning for months -- until most of the 1.2 million tons of debris are hauled away. A fire needs three things to survive: fuel, oxygen and a heat source. "If you can break that formula in any way, it will go out," said Marko Bourne, a spokesman for the fire administration of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "The problem is how to do that with this fire." While the blaze is starved for oxygen, the scalding steel buried below ground will retain its heat until enough air reaches it or water douses it, said Don Carson, a hazardous materials expert for the National Operating Engineers Union. The jets that exploded into the towers showered them with gallons of jet fuel and raised the temperature of the structural beams to about 2,000 degrees. "There are pieces of steel being pulled out that are still cherry red," Carson said as he stood amid the smoking debris this week. "It's like the charcoal that you put in your grill. ... You light it and it stays hot." Firefighters continue to soak the ravaged 17-acre area with water, but the heavy streams seep only so far into the layered debris. As chunks of steel and concrete are raised by excavation machines, the city's Bravest wet the exposed areas and extinguish flames that erupt from crevices when oxygen rushes in. "We will put it out," said a Bronx firefighter. "It's just a matter of time." The Fire Department has yet to declare the blaze under control. No Blaze Like It Bourne said the blaze is so "far beyond a normal fire" that it is nearly impossible to draw conclusions about it based on other fires. While it is not unusual for underground fires to smolder for long periods of time, these usually occur in landfills or coal mines. Several mines in Pennsylvania and Canada have been burning for decades. The classic example cited by experts is a strip mine in Centralia, Pa., that ignited in 1962 and continues to burn. Forest fires also can rage for months. But Don Smurthwaite of the National Interagency Fire Center said not to come to him for answers to the Ground Zero blaze. "We can always count on that season-ending event -- rain or snow -- to take care of the fire," Smurthwaite said. "The fires in the World Trade Center are entirely different. All the fuel they need is right there." * Parents Call Excavation Barge A Health Threat by Elizabeth Hays Daily News Staff Writer Parents from several lower Manhattan schools are fighting to have a barge stocked with World Trade Center debris removed from its berth in the Hudson River. The group fears the barge, docked off West St. behind Stuyvesant High School, is coating the neighborhood with potentially toxic dust. The barge is a central link in the city's massive excavation of the disaster site. Each day, up to 350 trucks loaded with steel and other debris rumble six blocks from Ground Zero to the 250-foot barge at Pier 25, just north of Chambers St. The debris is then loaded onto smaller barges and shipped to the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island or to metal recyclers in New Jersey. Despite assurances from city and federal officials that the air is safe, parents from four of the schools closest to the wreckage say that the trucks track dust through the neighborhood and spew clouds into the air when they dump their loads. "We want the barge moved," said Angela Fremont-Appel, co-chairwoman of the Parent Teacher Association at Intermediate School 89, which shares a building with Public School 89 on Warren and West Sts. "We all feel the environmental conditions down there aren't healthy for students, for families living down there or for staff." The other school involved is Public School 234 on Chambers and Greenwich Sts. Of the four schools, Stuyvesant is the only one that is back in its building. Workers at the wreckage have complained of persistent coughs and other ailments. Students and staff at Stuyvesant complained of coughs, headaches, nosebleeds and other ailments after classes resumed on Oct. 9. This week, about 30 students interviewed said their symptoms had eased. Frank McCarton, a spokesman for the city Office of Emergency Management, said it was unlikely the barge would be moved. He said the city is testing continuously testing air quality and taking steps to ensure the amount of dust is minimized, such as spraying the debris with water. "Safety is paramount for everybody in that area," he said. Parents of students from the three displaced schools warned that they may refuse to send their children back to the schools if the barge stays. "We don't want to draw a line in the sand about the barge," said George Olsen, president of PS 234's PTA. "But until we know that it's safe, we're not going back." * Rudy Defends Smaller Rescue Crews by Michele McPhee Daily News Staff Writer Under attack for losing his compassion, Mayor Giuliani yesterday defended the city's decision to scale back the number of rescue workers digging for remains at Ground Zero. The mayor has ordered the Fire and Police departments to reduce the number of their people working at the World Trade Center site to 24 for each agency, citing safety concerns. The news has been received bitterly by rescue workers and family members of victims still missing. High-ranking FDNY sources said the mayor also has turned over management of Ground Zero to the city Department of Design and Construction. "All of the changes being made at Ground Zero are being made for safety reasons, and the safety experts have made those recommendations," Giuliani said yesterday. City officials are concerned the rubble pile could collapse while rescue workers are crawling into voids to look for bodies. But the pregnant widow of Michael Lyons -- a firefighter with Squad 41 in the Bronx whose remains have not been found -- is "very upset" that the FDNY and NYPD's presence will be diminished. "I want my husband's body found. Just leaving a handful of firefighters down there is not going to do," said Lyons, who was expected to give birth to the couple's second baby any day. "They should have firefighters close to the scene," said Gib Craig of Squad 41, which lost six men in the Sept. 11 attacks. "Construction workers are doing a great job, but they're looking for debris, they're not looking for bodies." But Fire Department sources said Ground Zero is hazardous. "It would be a real shame to go to someone's wife and say their husband was killed trying to recover the remains of someone," a fire official said. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytnyc-11.02.01-05:48:31-17607