Union asks DA to reopen Deutsche probe

One day after a judge cleared the last two defendants of homicide charges in the death of two firemen in a 2007 blaze at the Deutsche Bank building, the firefighters union Thursday asked prosecutors to reopen their investigation.

Uniformed Fire Officers Association president Alexander Hagan called on Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance to "review all of the evidence" in a "renewed effort to pinpoint the blame for the deaths of firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino."

The letter asked the DA to look at the roles of the building owner, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., and general contractor Bovis Lend Lease. A spokesman for Vance declined to comment on the letter.

On Wednesday, asbestos abatement manager Mitchel Alvo of Freeport and his employer, the John Galt Corp. of the Bronx, were cleared of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Last week, two other midlevel managers in the demolition of the building were also cleared.

After a 14-month grand jury investigation by former District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, the four were indicted in 2008 on charges related to cutting an emergency water pipe.

Morgenthau declined to prosecute other potentially culpable parties, including city agencies that had failed to conduct inspections and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. General contractor Bovis Lend Lease created a fund for the families of the firefighters as part of a non-prosecution agreement.

The letter reflected long-standing complaints from some firefighters and union officials that low-level workers were scapegoated, but politics blocked the prosecution of higher-ups who allowed hazardous conditions at the building.

The letter from Hagan noted that Morgenthau himself, in a report on the fire, said the LMDC was told by a consultant just two weeks before the blaze that safety lapses made the building an "accident waiting to happen."