York City Mayor Michael Helfrich dismissed findings of a federal report that laid out the city fire department's failure to properly account for the risks of reentering a collapsing building that killed two firefighters in 2018.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health on Monday released the 57-page report detailing the "inadequate risk vs. gain analysis" and other factors that contributed to the deaths of firefighters Ivan Flanscha and Zach Anthony.
"That's just somebody's opinion," Helfrich said, adding that inspection of the area determined there was "no imminent issue" before declining to explain his own take on the report's assertion about risk analysis. Flanscha and Anthony, ages 50 and 29 respectively, died March 22, 2018, when a wall collapsed at the former Weaver Piano & Organ Co. building, which had been heavily damaged in a fire that began the previous day.