Criminal Charges Possible in Deutsche Bank Fire

Aug. 21, 2007 — -- The contractors responsible for the demolition of the Deutsche Bank building may face charges of criminally negligent homicide after investigators found that faulty water pipes, designed specifically to fight fires, led to the death of two firefighters, according to WABC-TV in New York.

A section of the standpipes was found "not attached and lying on the floor nearby," according to a statement released by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office Monday night.

Voice recordings of firefighters saying, "The sprinklers are out of service and the standpipes are all dry," were caught by radios inside the Deutsche Bank building fire in Lower Manhattan this weekend and obtained by WABC.

Firefighters Joe Graffagnino, 33, and Robert Beddia, 54, suffered cardiac arrest after running out of air while trying to put out the blaze, the station reported.

The FDNY maintained that the standpipes in the Deutsche Bank building were in fact inspected and said that those reports will be a part of the ongoing investigation, according to the department's statement.

The failure of a standpipe system could be the difference between life and death in fires like the one at the Deutsche Bank, fire experts told ABCNEWS.com.

"If there's one piece of equipment that was critical [to putting out the fire] it was the standpipe system," said Glenn Corbett, a professor of fire science at John Jay College and an assistant fire chief in New Jersey. "It's the one line of defense for the firefighters, and they rely on it 100 percent."

A standpipe system is a vertical pipe that runs from the basement to the ceiling of every high-rise building, fire experts told ABC News. The water supply typically comes from fire hydrants that other members of a firefighting team have hooked up to the system on the ground.

The system allows firefighters to attach their hoses directly to the particular floor's standpipe valve — often located in stairwells of skyscrapers — rather than waste precious time carrying the hoses up several floors or snaking them up the facade of the building.

In the case of the Deutsche Bank fire, however, the standpipe system wasn't operable, likely because of a cracked valve, and instead of traveling to the 14th floor where the firefighters were located, the water didn't make it past floor five, city officials told WABC.

"It's like turning the water off in your house, taking the faucet off your tap and then turning the water back on," said Corbett. "As soon as they start pumping water into it, if the valve is missing or broken, it's like a geyser."