The investigation of a Harlem building blaze that killed a firefighter and disrupted production of a movie starring Edward Norton was rigged so Norton’s production company -- which was using the building for filming – would escape blame, an FDNY fire marshal claims.
Fire Marshal Scott Specht, the lead investigator in the fire, accuses Chief Fire Marshal Thomas Kane, his deputy J.D. Lynn and FDNY Assistant Commissioner Carlos Velez of retaliating against him for reporting an alleged cover-up to the city Department of Investigation, according to a notice of claim obtained Friday by the Daily News.
Specht, who served in Iraq as a helicopter pilot for the National Guard, declined to speak with a Daily News reporter citing FDNY regulations.
But his lawyer Peter Gleason called the fire marshal’s treatment “deplorable and disgusting.”