FDNY is investigating why the NYPD warehouse fire was not put out by the sprinkler system. Chris Glorioso reports.
The owner of the NYPD warehouse that burned down last week, destroying untold volumes of criminal case evidence, had been cited for multiple fire code violations related to sprinkler systems in recent years.
According to summonses obtained by the NBC New York I-Team, fire inspectors cited the warehouse landlord – a New Jersey company called Erie Basin Marine Associates – for at least 17 fire safety infractions in 2020 and 2021.
The alleged fire code violations include repeated failures to test, inspect, or certify sprinkler systems with fines totaling more than $17,000.
Eire Basin Marine Associates did not immediately respond to the I-Team’s request for comment. The company owns and leases several warehouse buildings at the address 700 Columbia Street in Brooklyn and it is not clear if the sprinkler testing violations pertained specifically to the NYPD evidence warehouse that burned, or other buildings on the same property.
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“The fact that this building was consumed by the fire with a sprinkler system in it, for me, is an incredible issue that needs to be looked at and why that happened,” said Glenn Corbett, a professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "Was it a design issue here? Was there a maintenance issue? An installation issue? What exactly caused that system to fail, because it never should have."
Amanda Farinacci, an FDNY spokesperson, did not say if the 2020 and 2021 sprinkler violations pertained to the NYPD evidence warehouse, but did confirm that building passed a sprinkler test on November 25th, fewer than three weeks before the inferno.
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“The warehouse is sprinklered throughout and the sprinklers activated, but the fire spread too quickly,” Farinacci said.
In an email to the I-Team, the NYPD did not address the 2020 and 2021 sprinkler violations issued to the warehouse landlord.
"The fire remains under investigation by the FDNY Fire Marshalls," the email said. "We will assess the damage caused by the fire. An update will be available in the future."
Even if a sprinkler system functions properly, Corbett said it is possible for the system to be overwhelmed by flames if the layout of sprinkler heads is poorly matched to the contents of the building. The FDNY has indicated the evidence warehouse was stacked top to bottom with material from floor to ceiling. The building also contained e-bikes, which are known to use highly flammable lithium ion batteries.
“You absolutely don’t want heavy metals on fire,” said Patrick McLaughlin, a former detective on the NYPD’s evidence collection team who now teaches forensics at John Jay College.
McLaughlin says he has been inside the warehouse that burned and always found it to be orderly and well-staffed. But the fire isn’t the first disaster to destroy key evidence there. Ten years ago, Superstorm Sandy devastated the same waterfront warehouse.
“I think that is a valid question the [police] department has to evaluate,” said McLaughlin. “The locations that we are putting our most important pieces of investigations into – are they secure?”
