Prometheus 6

42 Feet of Pipe Is Said to Be Missing
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and AL BAKER

The standpipe that failed to provide water during the fatal Deutsche Bank fire last month was not simply breached or cut — it was taken apart, and a full 42-foot stretch of it was removed from the building’s basement, several people with knowledge of the matter said.

Various reports in the days following the Aug. 18 blaze, which left two firefighters dead, had characterized the break in the pipe as a smaller section, one whose disappearance may not have been glaringly apparent to people working in the building.

But the people with knowledge of the matter said that indeed two consecutive 21-foot sections of the six-inch diameter cast-iron pipe, which ran horizontally across a section of the basement just beneath the ceiling, were cut or dismantled, leaving a large gap in full view of anyone in that part of the basement.

“If anyone had bothered to take a look, they would have known it was not in operable condition,” one of the people said.