By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A firefighter who nearly died next to two of his FDNY brothers in the massive Deutsche Bank building fire held back tears while reliving their chilling last moments during emotional testimony Thursday.
Firefighter James Martin said he desperately reached out for a gasping Joseph Graffagnino in the pitch-dark, smoke filled 14th floor stairwell of the doomed Lower Manhattan building.
"Jimmy, I'm out. I need air. I'm out of air. I need air," Martin recalled of Graffagnino's hearbreaking plea during the Aug. 18, 2007 fire.
"Get down!" Martin ordered, hoping Graffagnino would drop to the floor, where chances of survival were better.
Martin said he tried to pull his colleague closer so he could give him some of his own air supply, but Graffagnino was flailing his arms, he told a jury Thursday.
When they both collapsed, Martin knew their only chance for survival was to drag himself to the command area to send relief in for his cohorts.
Crawling, Martin made the harrowing trek through the construction debris-choked floor, nearly giving up hope at one point.
"I remember stopping and sitting just like this on the ground," he began. "That's it you're lost. You're probably going to run out of air and you're probably going to die."
"That probably lasted a second," he said.
"You shake your head and go, 'Wait a minute. You're a New York City fireman. You can do this. You're going to get them out and everything is going to be alright," said Martin, fighting back tears in a courtroom filled with several of his fellow Bravest.
He kept crawling and "eventually" made it to the command room at the edge of the floor where one of his supervisors was waiting.
"Almost like a movie, I landed at the feet of [my officer] and he looked at me and said, 'What the hell are you doing here?' "
"My nozzle and my control man are out of air — I know where they are,' " recalled Martin, who was dizzy and disoriented as he grasped for air near the edge of the building's external elevator.
"I remember throwing up and pointing: 'They're back there. They're by the stairwell,' " Martin said he told the officers, who did not at first realize that other men were still trapped.
Martin was not in the same unit as the firemen who were killed, but the three were united in brotherhood while fighting the fatal fire in the shadow of the World Trade Center.
Prosecutors say Graffagnino, 33, and Robert Beddia, 53, died because an emergency water supply was cut out by three demolition supervisors.
When EMS workers put Martin into an ambulance, he demanded to be brought to the same hospital where Graffagnino and Beddia were rushed.
Defense lawyers for the site supervisors on trial for manslaughter declined to cross examine the heroic witness.
Testimony in the trial of Mitchel Alvo, Salvatore DePaola and Jeffrey Melofchik will continue this afternoon. They allegedly ordered the standpipe in the basement of the building to be dismantled in an effort to cut costs during the building's demolition.
Their attorneys argue that various government agencies are really responsible for the fatalities and that their clients are "scapegoats."
