The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 61

Workers preparing to deconstruct the Deutsche Bank Building did uncover human remains on the roof. The remains were found several weeks ago and the Medical Examiner's office made the confirmation today. Talk about a grim milestone. More than four years after the attacks, and they're still finding body parts and fragments.

Workers on the roof of the skyscraper, the former Deutsche Bank Building at 130 Liberty Street, came across the fragments last month as they were cleaning gravel in preparation for the building's demolition. The 10 small pieces of bone, ranging from half an inch to two inches, some perhaps from a rib cage, were turned over to the medical examiner's office.

"Our rigorous protocols automatically assume findings of this nature to be human remains and therefore require that they be treated with the utmost care, dignity and respect," said Stefan Pryor, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owns 130 Liberty Street.

Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, said yesterday that preliminary information about the discoveries, made on Sept. 22, 26 and 29, "is that the bones are human."

Protective scaffolding will be erected around the building beginning next week. The demolition of the building is all the more difficult because of contamination from the collapsing WTC towers. Asbestos, mold, and other contaminants made it prohibitively expensive to try and reopen the building.

There are still 1,152 victims whose remains have never been identified.

It does not end.

9/11 workers got some much-needed relief from Senator Hillary Clinton who save a $125 million fund for health care that could have been folded back into the federal budget. The money was appropriated by the federal government after 9/11 but has gone unspent thus far. The money is essentially a contingency fund in case workers who were at Ground Zero during the cleanup and recovery come down with ailments associated with the cleanup.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center.