Acting on a resident's complaint, Capt. I standpipe system, as required by the city fire code.
Standpipes are the vertical piping that supply water to fight fires on every floor of a high-rise.
The city passed a law to require standpipes after the 1991 Meridian Plaza fire that burned out of control for nearly 19 hours and killed three firefighters. Donovan found out that the property owner, Philadelphia Management, had been cited for the violation, but that the violation had been dismissed by Deputy Commissioner Dominic Verdi of the Department of Licenses and Inspections, without any explanation, and contrary to the department's usual procedures. The mayor's spokesperson said in early September that the Inspector General would investigate the dismissal of the 100 fire code violations, as well as McLaughlin's relationship with Caplan. Four months later, there is still no word on the Inspector General's report. A mayoral spokesman told City Paper last month that the Inspector General would be releasing a report, but a spokesman for the Inspector General said the report was not finished, and that the report may never be publicly issued.