N.Y. scolded in skyscraper deaths

Prosecutors castigated city officials Monday but declined to charge them with any crimes in the deaths of two firefighters at a ground zero skyscraper, despite repeated failures to detect hazards that turned the tower into a deathtrap.

Three construction officials and a subcontractor that were dismantling the former Deutsche Bank tower when it burned in August 2007 were indicted on manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges.

“Everybody who could have screwed up, screwed up here,” New York County Dist. Atty. Robert Morgenthau said of the government agencies and subcontractors that had worked at the building since it was heavily damaged in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The city agreed to major reforms, including the creation of a civilian inspection unit to monitor fire safety at construction sites. Also, general contractor Bovis Lend Lease agreed to pay the two firefighters’ families $10 million in a “memorial fund.”

Morgenthau said that though the city made major mistakes, governments are generally immune from criminal prosecutions under a legal doctrine known as sovereign immunity.

Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino died of smoke inhalation after climbing 14 floors to fight a fire started by a construction worker’s careless smoking.

Their efforts were hampered by a deliberately cut water supply pipe and a maze of fire hazards, including deactivated sprinklers.