By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
TRIBECA — After a small fire last month in a Hudson Street building that stores 80,000 gallons of diesel fuel, city officials reassured worried TriBeCa residents that the building is safe.
“In our mind, there was really no risk [of the diesel fuel igniting],” said John Bley, a division chief with FDNY.
Bley spoke at a meeting State Sen. Daniel Squadron organized last Friday afternoon, following the May 18 fire at 60 Hudson St., the landmark Western Union Building.
The electrical fire in the Ace Hardware store on the building's ground floor produced a lot of smoke but did not spread more than a couple feet, Bley said. He said it took firefighters less than 20 minutes to put out the blaze once they arrived.
The fire occurred about 25 feet from the nearest container of diesel fuel, which was on the second floor, Bley said. The ceiling separating the two floors has a three-hour fire rating, meaning it could withstand a fire for that long, and the walls around the diesel tank have a two-hour rating, he said.
Under a variance from the city, 60 Hudson St. is allowed to store more than 80,000 gallons of diesel fuel, including more than 6,000 gallons above street level. Verizon and other building tenants need the fuel to supply backup generators to keep their sensitive electronic equipment running in the event of a blackout.
In exchange for the fuel storage variance, the city required building owner First Service Williams to make safety improvements and keep a fire safety director on site 24 hours a day.
Brian Maddox, spokesperson for First Service Williams, said the FDNY and other city agencies inspected the building 247 times last year and 54 times so far this year.
Still, TriBeCa residents remain concerned about the storage of so much fuel in their neighborhood. Residents say First Service Williams has made the situation worse by refusing to communicate.
“When something happens without people knowing, there is a real upset,” said Deborah Allen, a leader of Neighbors Against NOISE, a TriBeCa group that watches the building closely.
At Squadron’s meeting last week, Maddox promised to notify public officials and the TriBeCa Community Emergency Response Team about future incidents. For more routine issues, like tests of the building’s generators, Maddox said he would post a notice on the building’s ground floor and would consider sending e-mail notifications to residents.
City Councilwoman Margaret Chin, who attended last Friday’s meeting, said simple actions like these would make residents feel much safer.
“If you could be a good neighbor on this, “ she told Maddox, “it would resolve so many issues.”
