The fire in the former Deutsche Bank office claimed the lives of two firefighters.
The fire in the former Deutsche Bank office claimed the lives of two firefighters. (Hazard/AP)

Three construction supervisors at the former Deutsche Bank building made a conscious decision "to put profits over people" - and it killed two firefighters, prosecutors charged Monday.

"They knew this building was a death trap," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Brian Fields charged in an impassioned opening statement at the manslaughter trial.


Fields said the defendants ignored multiple warnings about a broken standpipe - which provides water for firefighting - during demolition of the damaged Ground Zero tower.

They took "a calculated risk that the building would be down before something terrible happened," he said.

Instead, when a cigarette started a huge blaze on Aug. 18, 2007, the 41-story tower became "a house of horrors for hundreds of firefighters" who found themselves trapped for an hour without water, Fields said.

Firefighters Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33, died of smoke inhalation on the 14th floor after their oxygen tanks ran out.

On trial are Jeffrey Melofchik, 49, site safety manager for general contractor Bovis Lend Lease; Mitchel Alvo, 52, director of asbestos abatement for subcontractor John Galt Corp; Salvatore DePaola, 56, demolition foreman for Galt; and the Galt company itself.

Bovis was hired to demolish the building, which was irreparably damaged when the south tower of the World Trade Center fell on Sept. 11, 2001.

Fields said Bovis paid Galt a lump sum of $58.5 million for the work, meaning there was an incentive to cut corners.

"The motive was money," the prosecutor said.

The defense is expected to get its turn later Monday or on Tuesday.

The defendants say they didn't know about the standpipe and have called themselves scapegoats for a slew of larger regulatory misteps, including a failure by the Fire Department to properly inspect the building.

Alvo and the Galt company elected to have a judge decide their cases, rather than a jury. The judge will hear the evidence simultaneously with the jury that will render judgement on DePaola and Melofchik.

If convicted, the men face up to 15 years in prison, and the company could be hit with a $10,000 fine.

The trial is expected to last for months.