Building inaction

Debris death highlights finding city slow on forcing fixes ID for 1st in state to die from vaping

The state has been after the city to clean up shoddy construction — and prevent accidents like the one that killed a prominent architect Tuesday — for the past eight years without much resolution, the Daily News has learned.

In 2011, the state Comptroller’s Office issued a report that found the city Buildings Department “did not have effective systems in place to ensure hazardous violations were resolved quickly.”

The study made four recommendations for the city to follow to cut down on hazardous building and construction conditions.

A 2014 follow-up comptroller’s audit found that the DOB “made progress,” but noted that two of its suggestions were followed and two were only partially implemented over three years.

It also revealed that more than half of Class 1 violations were not re-inspected within the mandated 60-day window.

“While the average number of days to re-inspect Class 1 violations issued in March 2014 was about 63 days, our review of these 854 Class 1 violations showed that 474, or 55 percent, were not re-inspected within the required 60 days,” the 2014 report found.

Erica Tishman (inset), 60, vice president project management firm Zubatkin, was struck by the debris and died, while walking on Seventh Ave. near W. 49th St. on Tuesday.

The building the projectile fell from — 729 Seventh Ave. — was hit with a Class 1 construction violation for “failure to maintain building wall(s) or appurtenances” months ago.

The April 29 infraction detailed “damaged terra cotta at areas above 15th floor in several locations which poses a falling hazard for pedestrians.” The building owner was ordered to make repairs and implement safety features, city officials said.

In July, the DOB issued a follow-up violation for failing to resolve the precarious situation. Then, in a September hearing, the Class 1 violation was downgraded to a Class 2.

But even with the downgraded violation, the owner was still required to make the facade repairs, officials said.

The city approved plans for facade work in November, records show. But as the state comptroller noted in 2011, it seems clear that the condition at the yellow-brick tower was not resolved quickly enough.

Now state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is working on another Buildings Department audit focused on the sidewalk sheds erected to protect pedestrians when work is underway. That report is expected to be made public in 2020.

“Following this tragic incident, we have been sweeping facades around the city that have already been identified as needing immediate repairs, going building by building to order additional protections for the public if needed,” DOB spokeswoman Abigail Kunitz said. “Owners must be held accountable for the safety of their buildings to keep New Yorkers safe.”

A Bronx teen who was the first in New York State to die from vaping was identified by authorities Wednesday.

Denis Byrne, 17, died Oct. 4 from a electronic cigarette-related illness.

“Denis was one of the nicest people that I had the pleasure of going to high school with and knowing,” Frank Bartunek, a classmate at Salesian High School in New Rochelle, wrote on Facebook after the teen (inset) died.

Gov. Cuomo announced the state’s first vaping death two months ago, but the teen was not named until the city medical examiner released his official cause of death.

The Health Department said Denis was hospitalized in early September with a vaping-associated illness. He was readmitted weeks later and died at Montefiore Hospital.