<div id="subtitle">FDNY disciplines 7 fire officers in fatal 2007 ground zero blaze, relieves two of command</div><div><p>The city's Fire Department disciplined seven fire commanders Wednesday over mistakes that led to a 2007 blaze at a contaminated ground zero skyscraper that killed two firefighters.</p><p>A captain and a deputy chief were stripped of their commands for failing to follow through on orders to make sure the former Deutsche Bank building was properly inspected, said Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scopetta.</p><p>Not a single fire inspection of the building took place as required between the time demolition began on March 20, 2007, and the deadly blaze on Aug. 18, 2007, according to a report released last week by the city's Department of Investigation.</p><p>"Inspections are a critically important function of the Department and the failure of company officers to perform them — and the failure by supervisors to ensure they are being completed — is a serious breach of their responsibilities," Scopetta said in a statement.</p><p>A message left for the uniformed fire officers' union was not immediately returned Wednesday.</p><p>The two firefighters died of smoke inhalation while trying to fight the blaze, but their efforts were complicated by a deliberately cut standpipe that supplies water to fire hoses and a confusion of fire hazards, including deactivated sprinklers, blocked stairwells and an air pressure system that created more smoke.</p><p>The former 41-story tower near the World Trade Center site is being dismantled since it was contaminated in the Sept. 11 attacks.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=53419344&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

Copyright 2009  <a href="http://www.ap.org">AP News</a></div></div>