Remains Found Around Ground Zero

Workers searching through debris in buildings adjacent to the World Trade Center site this week found the remains of about a dozen people, city officials said Saturday.

The official recovery effort at Ground Zero ended on May 30, but a few of the surrounding buildings had not yet been extensively searched.

CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston explains that safety concerns kept workers out of those buildings. But with the recovery effort at Ground Zero complete, teams are now looking at them, and finding remains.

In the past week, workers thoroughly searched 90 West St. and 130 Cedar St., two office buildings that were heavily damaged on Sept. 11, said Megan Sheekey, a spokeswoman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Crews searching those buildings over the past week have found bone fragments, teeth and even parts of a plane's luggage rack, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Sheekey said the remains would be turned over to the city Medical Examiner's office for identification.

"The mayor has said we'll continue to try and recover and identify those we have lost," Sheekey said.

The date Bloomberg chose for the ending ceremony was symbolic, and a much scaled-back recovery effort at ground zero is still ongoing, Sheekey said.

"The ceremony was a symbolic close, but certainly we will do anything we can in our effort to continue to identify remains," she said.

Recovery workers had searched 90 West St. shortly after the attacks and found the remains of two people in an elevator, along with large sections of one of the hijacked airplanes, city officials said. A more thorough search was conducted this week after visits with search dogs suggested that more remains may be found, officials said.

A hole had been blown through the roof of 130 Cedar St., and workers focused a search Friday on upper floors with broken windows, the fire department said.

Officials said they had been unable to gain easy access to the buildings earlier because of the ongoing work at the trade center site. The work at 130 Cedar involves a crane that could not be erected until the bulk of the recovery effort at the immediate site was complete, according to the fire department.

One large building, 130 Liberty St., owned by Deutsche Bank, has not yet been searched, in part because its owners fear the process could stir up dangerous contaminants.

"We are working in close cooperation with the city of New York to agree on a joint plan for the removal of the debris in the most expeditious and environmentally safe manner possible," Rohini Pragasam, a spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank, told The Times.