More sad news at Ground Zero

Two firefighters were killed today at the site of the dismantling of the Deutsche Bank building at Ground Zero after a seven-alarm fire broke out:

Two firefighters lost their lives Saturday while battling a blaze at the former Deutsche Bank skyscraper in downtown Manhattan, abandoned after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Officers at the scene said the building was in danger of collapse after a seven-alarm fire ripped through the vacant structure near Ground Zero, police told the Associated Press.

The blaze began about a dozen floors up in the tower.

One firefighter suffered cardiac arrest and another smoke inhalation. A third suffered minor injuries to an ankle, fire officials at the scene said.

The fire was burning on multiple floors at the building. Construction crews had already dismantled 14 of the building’s 40 stories — reaching the 26th floor on Tuesday. Some firefighters used stairs to reach the burning upper floors.

[…]

The cause of the fire was unknown. Smoke pouring from the burning building was visible from midtown Manhattan and the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.

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. More than three dozen fire vehicles, with more than 160 firefighters, responded to the blaze as pieces of burning debris fell from the building to the streets.

Scaffolding on the sides of the building was aflame as police shut down streets in the area around Ground Zero.

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.

I can’t add much to this story outside of standing the obvious fact that it’s just so tragic, and for NYCrs especially it’s probably like reliving parts of 9-11 all over again.