Trial on fatal Deutsche Bank fire begins

Greed and reckless corner-cutting by contractors turned the Deutsche Bank building into a "death trap" that stranded firefighters in a smoky hell without water, a prosecutor said as the manslaughter trial over the fatal 2007 blaze near Ground Zero began Monday.

"There was a decision by these defendants to put profits over people and money over lives," prosecutor Brian J. Fields said in his opening statement in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. "They gambled with the lives of . . . hundreds of firefighters who would rush in to fight a fire."

The Deutsche Bank building was fatally damaged when the south tower of the World Trade Center fell into it on Sept. 11, 2001. The fire that killed firefighters Joseph Graffagnino, 33, and Robert Beddia, 52, occurred six years later, during cleanup and teardown of the 30 Liberty St. building.

Prosecutors allege that project managers had severed a basement standpipe that provided water to upper floors because it was cheaper than decontaminating it. Without water to fight a 17th-floor fire, Graffagnino and Beddia died of smoke inhalation in a stairwell.

Defendants Mitchel Alvo, 58, of Huntington Station, and Salvatore DePaola, 56, of Staten Island, and their employer, the John Galt Corp., along with Jeffrey Melofchik, 49, of Westfield, N.J., a site safety manager for general contractor Bovis Lend Lease, are charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

The case has long been a flash point because of evidence that it was an avoidable tragedy at the same site where hundreds of firefighters died on 9/11. New York City and Bovis have both acknowledged poor oversight. The defendants have portrayed themselves as scapegoats who didn't know they were cutting a standpipe.

Fields, speaking for more than three hours, told jurors the city, its building department and its fire department all made mistakes, but called attempts to shift blame for the deaths "a lot of noise."

"Joey and Bobby died because they didn't get water, and they didn't get water because the defendants chose to ignore their responsibilities," he said. "The Office of the Mayor didn't remove the standpipe."

In explaining the tragedy, Fields focused on the economic arrangements between the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the owner, general contractor Bovis, and Galt, the subcontractor handling removal of asbestos and hazardous World Trade Center dust.

Bovis and Galt were both working on lump-sum contracts, with penalties if the project took too long. Workers concluded that removal of contaminated pipes was cheaper and faster than cleaning, Fields said, which led to the standpipe in the basement being cut.

"There are natural disasters, such as just happened in Japan," Fields said. "There are man-made accidents. This case is neither. This case is about reckless crimes -- reckless crimes committed by these defendants."

Defense openings are scheduled for Tuesday. The trial is expected to last four months.