Rep. Nadler Statement on Tragic Fire at Ground Zero

NEW YORK -- Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-08), whose district includes the site of the Deutsche Bank building that caught on fire Saturday, today issued the following statement:

"Yesterday, as a plume of black acrid smoke rose over lower Manhattan, for many residents, it brought back vivid memories of 9/11. As on that tragic day, New York’s finest responded quickly and valiantly. Sadly, two firefighters lost their lives fighting the blaze and five others were injured. My deepest condolences go to the families, friends and colleagues of Joseph Graffagnino and Robert C. Beddia. Their deaths are a crushing loss to the city of New York and the Fire Department.

"As was plainly seen in reports we released publicly some years ago, there are extraordinary levels of contamination present in the Deutsche Bank building due to the collapse of the World Trade Center. As a result, this fire has the potential to again cause environmental hazards for the downtown community. It is possible that PAHs, PCBs and heavy metals, among other potentially health-threatening hazardous contaminants, may have been released into the air. In light of this, the Environmental Protection Agency must engage in full response monitoring to this incident, and must make public the raw results of all testing and monitoring as soon as they are available.

"And of course, this incident serves as a potent reminder that the EPA must finally fulfill its legal responsibility as the lead agency accountable for the environmental response to 9/11 and conduct a comprehensive and effective environmental testing and clean up program for all buildings downtown."

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