Fatal collapse has city ties

The New York firm that was handling the demolition of a

dormant San Francisco power plant when it collapsed yesterday - trapping three

workers and killing one of them - is the same firm that was recently hired to

take down the former Deutsche Bank tower near Ground Zero.

LVI Environmental Services, based in lower Manhattan, was working on

decontaminating, decommissioning and demolishing the former Pacific Gas &

Electric power plant, in the Bayview section of San Francisco, when it

collapsed around noon yesterday, trapping three workers.

San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge told the San

Francisco Examiner that the body of the worker killed by the collapse was

"basically encased in metal" and could not be removed from the four-story

structure, which has been off-line since 2006.

One worker was rescued almost immediately after the collapse and taken to

San Francisco General Hospital with life-threatening injuries, Talmadge said.

The other extricated worker's legs were crushed in the accident. He was being

treated at the same hospital, Talmadge said. Authorities did not identify the

three.

Earlier this month, the state-operated lower Manhattan Development Corp.

hired LVI Environmental Services to complete the decontamination and razing of

the troubled former site of the Deutsche Bank at 130 Liberty St.

LVI spokeswoman Amy McGahan said while the company is "deeply saddened" by

the accident, she called it an isolated incident. "This incident has no effect

on LVI Environmental Services' ability to safely complete" the Deutsche Bank

project.