By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — Footage of the fatal Deutsche Bank fire viewed for the first time Wednesday showed huge, orange flames engulfing the 14th floor of the building as sirens wailed and plumes of smoke filled the air in lower Manhattan on Aug. 18, 2007.
"Good God. We gotta get out of here," said the videographer, Richard McHugh, a network TV producer who lived at Greenwich and Albany streets and had a clear view of the blaze from his window.
"There goes the Deutsche Bank building," he added grimly. McHugh and his wife left the neighborhood that evening and stayed the night with a relative because of the fire, he said.
Prosecutors showed the harrowing video to the jury in the Deutsche Bank fire trial on Wednesday.
They argue that the fatal fire at the "death trap" of a demolition site raged on because three site supervisors tore out the standpipe water supply in the basement of the high-rise building, making it impossible for firefighters on the upper floors to get access to water. The supervisors allegedly took down the standpipe to pass an asbestos inspection in the basement of the building. They could have replaced it but chose not to for financial reasons, prosecutors say.
The lack of water caused the deaths of firefighters Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33, by smoke inhalation, according to prosecutors.
Site workers Mitchel Alvo, 52, Salvatore DePaola, 56, and Jeffrey Melofchik, 49, are charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. They face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
During testimony on Wednesday, prosecutors showed still photographs displaying the messy, hazard-ridden inside of the building both before and after the fire ravaged it.
Asbestos removal workers often wandered through the building in space suit-like garb while working around live electric wires in a chemically dangerous environment, according to testimony.
Attorneys for Alvo, DePaola and Melofchick, along with subcontractor the Galt Corp., which was charged as an entity, argue they are scapegoats for the real culprits — the city, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation — which owned the site — and Bovis Lend Lease, the demolition general contractor.
Testimony is schedule to continue in the workers' four-month trial on Thursday.
