New York City escaped the criminal charges today in the fatal Deutsche Bank fire, but the Manhattan District Attorney excoriated the Administration of Michael R. Bloomberg, saying its failures contributed to the deaths of two firefighters who perished battling a smokey blaze near ground zero in August 2007.
The district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, described an avalanche of failures by the city, contractors and other government agencies as he unveiled manslaughter and other charges against three construction supervisors and a subcontractor in the deaths. He cited what he called the city’s “general level of incompetence” and said it was escaping indictment only because of significant legal hurdles. But he said that his office had nonetheless obtained unprecedented reforms within city government.
“The city and its agencies, especially the Fire Department and the Department of Buildings, failed to discover the gaping hole in the building’s fire protection system,” Mr. Morgenthau said at a news conference.
“A single inspection of the basement would have discovered the disabled standpipe, but that inspection never took place, he said, adding: “You wouldn’t need a magnifying glass to discover that a 42-foot section of the pipe was missing.”
The general contractor, Bovis Lend Lease LLP, an international construction management giant, also evaded indictment, Mr. Morgenthau said, because he was loathe to leave the the company’s large workforce unemployed and because the company agreed to have all its work in New York City overseen by a monitor.
The three construction supervisors — Mitchel Alvo, Jeffrey Melofchik and Salvatore DePaola — surrendered early this morning and were expected to be arraigned this afternoon on charges of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. The subcontractor, the John Galt Corporation, which performed the demolition and asbestos abatement at the former bank tower, faces the same charges and will also be arraigned this afternoon.
The city’s many missteps created some of the conditions that led to the fire, and the general contractor, Bovis Lend Lease LLP, which had overall responsibility for overseeing demolition and asbestos removal at the 41-story building, were not charged.
“In summary, everyone failed at the Deutsche Bank building,” Mr Morgenthau said.
As part of an agreement with prosecutors in the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, all work that Bovis does in New York City will be overseen by a monitor paid for by the contractor, Mr. Morgenthau said. The city, under a separate agreement with prosecutors, will create a new civilian division within the fire department that will conduct inspections of high-rise buildings where construction demolition or asbestos abatement work is being done.
“Our goal is to put in place procedures which will prevent a disaster of the magnitude of the Deutsche Bank fire and to make sure that firefighters are never again exposed to the risks they faced in that fire,” he said.
The building was damaged on Sept. 11, 2001, and still has not been demolished. The cascade of failures and missteps during the demolition and asbestos abatement there were revealed soon after the fire and then exposed in painstaking detail during a 16-month investigation that led to today’s charges.
The decision not to charge the city, he said,was based on a legal concept known as sovereign immunity, under which a municipality is immune from prosecution absent a specific waiver.
“We deeply regret the failures of our agencies to inspect and detect the conditions that contributed to the deaths of Firefighters Beddia and Graffagnino,” the city said in a statement.” These two men bravely sought to protect us all and lost their lives in that heroic effort. We know that their families have suffered terribly.”
The case has been steeped in emotion since the start, when the two firefighters, Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino, died inside the partly deconstructed building. The loss of the two firefighters inside a building so closely linked to the terrorist attack added to the grief.
And the failures by city officials, state development officials, contractors and others that preceded the fire stoked the anger of the firefighters’ families, who believe that they died because of these lapses.
The building’s sprinkler system had been dismantled and fire exits were sealed off as part of the demolition and asbestos abatement. It was later learned that a standpipe, designed to carry water to the building’s upper floors during a fire, had also been dismantled and that cheap, non-fire-retardant plywood had been used in the deconstruction.
The families of the men, who were briefed by prosecutors on Dec. 8, complained that they felt they would not see justice done — which to them meant charges against the city and Bovis. They were also initially offended at an offer by Bovis, which was negotiating with prosecutors, that family lawyers criticized at the time as an effort by the company to buy its way out of the case.
But since then, the family of Firefighter Beddia has reached a preliminary agreement under which it would accept a $5 million payment from Bovis provided it not be barred from pursuing a civil lawsuit against Bovis, the city or the John Galt Corporation.
The Galt company, which Bovis had hired for the demolition and asbestos abatement of the building with the approval of state development officials, was created by the stitching together of executives and workers from two companies that had no experience deconstructing large buildings.
The families have said that they plan to pursue a civil lawsuit in an effort to get more answers about what happened that day and prevent other firefighters from dying in similar circumstances.
The father of Firefighter Graffagnino, Joseph A. Graffagnino, however, said on Sunday that he had no plans to sign such an agreement. Mr. Graffagnino said he considered it a bribe.
The investigation made clear that required inspections were never done by the city’s Buildings and Fire Departments.
The city avoided indictment in large part because of a legal concept known as sovereign immunity, which holds a municipality immune from prosecution absent a specific waiver.
But under an agreement with prosecutors, the Bloomberg administration will acknowledge its failures and set up a new division within the Fire Department, financed with several million dollars and staffed with about 25 civilians. Its mission will be to inspect high-rise buildings under construction or demolition, officials.
Mr. Morgenthau’s office has also reached an agreement with Bovis that includes the $5 million payment, which one person briefed on the matter called a memorial payment. Bovis, in a statement, acknowledged its role in helping create the conditions that led to the deaths of the firefigthers. “Bovis regrets the failures that contributed to the deaths of Firefighters Beddia and Graffagnino,” the statement said. “We recognize that nothing can bring them back and that their families have suffered terribly.”
The manslaughter charges, voted on by a grand jury that has been hearing evidence in the case for about a year, are just one stage of the inquiry, people involved in the matter have said. Another panel is hearing evidence about possible fraud involving Galt as well as the role of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owns the Deutsche Bank building, in hiring Galt, a decision made despite the objections of city investigators.