NYFD blamed in Deutsche Bank blaze deaths

New York City's fire department itself was the primary culprit in the death of two of its own firemen from smoke inhalation during a 2007 blaze at the Deutsche Bank building, defense lawyers charged Tuesday at the manslaughter trial of three construction supervisors.

The FDNY's failure to conduct required inspections at the site led scores of firemen to rush in without knowing about a specially designed ventilation system and sealed stairwells that trapped them in choking, blinding black smoke, said defense lawyer Susan Hoffinger.

"The stairwells and 'negative air' system did them in because of the Fire Department's failure to do critical inspections," she said in opening arguments in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. "That's hard to say and hard to hear, but it's true and it needs to be said."

Firefighters Joseph Graffagnino and Robert Beddia died in the August 2007 fire on the 17th floor of the building near Ground Zero. It was fatally damaged on Sept. 11, and six years later workers were cleaning out hazardous materials and tearing it down.

Prosecutors have charged Mitchel Alvo, 58, of Huntington Station; co-worker Sal DePaola, 56, of Staten Island; their employer,subcontractor the John Galt Corp., and Jeffrey Melofchik, 49, of New Jersey, a safety manager for general contractor Bovis Lend Lease, with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

The government claims the men severed a standpipe, depriving firefighters of water, and the Fire Department's failure to conduct inspections doesn't absolve them.

But the defendants deny knowing they cut a part of the standpipe system. Their lawyers called them "fall guys" for official failings, and ridiculed the prosecutors' claim that they intentionally severed a standpipe to save the cost of cleaning it on an $80 million project.

"These are salaried people working on a multimillion dollar project," said Edward Little, Melofchik's lawyer. " . . . Why would they do this?"

Little argued that water didn't matter. He said 100 industrial-sized fans used to suck the air on floors undergoing cleanup through filters instead created a death trap, driving smoke into stairwells when firemen opened a sealed hatch below the fire.

DePaola's and Melofchik's cases will be decided by the jury. Alvo and Galt are having their cases tried by Justice Rena Uviller, who heard Hoffinger's opening without the jury.

The trial is expected to last four months.