(AP)
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Demolition contractors at the former Deutsche Bank building “gambled with lives for money” by ignoring safety problems at the site — and it was hero firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino who paid the price for their roll of the dice, a prosecutor said yesterday.
Salvatore DePaola, Mitchel Alvo and Jeffrey Melofchik all had decades of experience in construction, demolition and abatement work, and all knew or should have known that dismantling the Ground Zero tower’s standpipe would leave it a tinderbox in the fatal fire that erupted on Aug. 17, 2007, prosecutor Brian Fields said.
“They knew the standpipe” — the piping that firefighters can tap into to battle blazes in skyscrapers — “was breached, and they disregarded the risk,” Fields said in opening statements for the trio’s trial on manslaughter and criminally-negligent-homicide charges.
“This is a case about reckless crimes,” he said. “These defendants knew this building was, in essence, a deathtrap.”
So when Beddia and married father of two Graffagnino were on the 14th floor to put out a cigarette-sparked blaze, they were instead overcome with thick smoke in a fire that quickly raged out of control.
Beddia, 53, and Graffagnino, 33, died at the scene, and Fields said it could have been worse.
“Over 100 firefighters were stranded in the Deutsche Bank building because they had no water. A controllable fire became uncontrollable,” he said.
Fields said the trio “knew or should have known” the standpipe was dismantled, because of warnings from workers and city violations. He said they also knew there was a high risk of fire, with workers using torches and ignoring city building codes forbidding smoking at the site.
“Smoking and drinking was everywhere,” Fields said.
But the bosses looked the other way because they were desperate to get the $58 million job done quickly to avoid financial penalties, Fields said.
“Progress was rewarded, and delay was punished,” he said.
Melofchik, 49, was the site safety manager, while Alvo, 58, and DePaola, 56, were a supervisor and a foreman, respectively, for subcontractor John Galt Co.
Defense openings are expected to begin today.
Lawyers for the trio contend it was various city agencies that fell down on the job, not the three men.
The FDNY, which was supposed to inspect the building every 15 days, hadn’t done so in more than a year.
John Galt Co. has also been charged in the case. While a jury is hearing the case against DePaola and Melofchik, Alvo and John Galt have opted to have the presiding judge, Rena Uviller, decide their fates. The trial is expected to last at least three months.
The men face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.