Crime & Safety
‘Motherless Brooklyn’ Fire Suit Claiming Cover-Up Can Proceed
A former FDNY inspector claims he was pressured to blame a faulty boiler, and not the film crew, for the fatal Harlem blaze, records show.
NEW YORK CITY — A lawsuit claiming the FDNY tried to cover up the true cause of a fatal fire on the set of Edward Norton’s “Motherless Brooklyn” can proceed after a New York appeals court ruled to reinstate it, legal records show.
New York’s Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Wednesday the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by former Fire Marshal Scott Specht, who said he was pressured to blame a broken boiler — and not the film crew — for the blaze, records show.
“Specht’s reports of these actions to outside agencies therefore implicate matters of public importance,” the federal judges ruled. “We conclude that these reports touch on matters of public concern.”
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Specht’s accusations center around the March 2018 fire on St. Nicholas Avenue and West 149th Street in which firefighter Michael Davidson lost his life, court records show.
The investigator argued the FDNY wanted to cover up the movie crew’s culpability to protect a production company that brought the city a lot of cash, according to the complaint.
Norton’s production company has repeatedly denied the “Motherless Brooklyn” crew was responsible for the fatal fire, according to reports.
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“The production had no contact with that boiler at any point in time,” the lawyers said in a statement to the Post. “There was been a lot of misinformation circulating.”
When Specht refused to lay blame on the boiler, the FDNY yanked him from the investigation, the now-retired FDNY inspector said.
But In 2020, a Brooklyn federal judge ruled to dismiss Specht’s retaliation claim, arguing his speech was not protected by the First Amendment because he acted as an employee and not a private citizen, court papers show.
City Law Department spokesperson Nicholas Paolucci said,“We’re disappointed by the ruling but confident that he will not prevail on the First Amendment claims that have been remanded.”
The building at 773 St. Nicholas Ave. has since been torn down and the first has spurred suits from a former tenant and Davidson’s widow.
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