The Deutsche Bank skyscraper, heavily damaged during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, burned Saturday afternoon in Lower Manhattan.
Eyewitness News' Stacey Sager reports.
We have reports of two firefighters critically injured in this blaze.
It struck on floors 16 and 17 sometime after 3:00 p.m. The scaffolding outside the building was burning, pieces of it dropping to the ground we are told.
The skyscraper stands just feet from Ground Zero and was heavily damaged on September 11, 2001. Crews have been dismantling it floor by floor, a difficult process necessary because asbestos was found in the building after 9/11.
The process of taking down the building stopped for awhile when human remains from 9/11 were found on it. But it was again being deconstructed today, part of the process of getting ready to build the new Freedom Tower.
For those trying to get around lower Manhattan the fire created some real problems Saturday. Parts of Church Street were closed as firefighters fought the blaze. The NYPD mobilized to deal with crowd control.
The 1.4 million square foot office tower stood as a downtown Manhattan eyesore since the 9/11 attacks, contaminated not just with asbestos, but also with toxic dust and debris after the World Trade Center's south tower collapsed into it.
