At a news conference Monday afternoon, Morgenthau announced his office will prosecute John Galt Corp., the subcontractor; Jeffrey Melofchik, the Bovis site safety manager for the project; and two John Galt employees, foreman Salvatore DePaola and Mitchel Alvo, director of abatement. All have been charged with second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment in connection with the August 18, 2007 blaze in the partially dismantled tower at 130 Liberty St., in which two New York City firefighters were killed and more than 100 were injured. The tower was irrevocably damaged on 9/11, when part of the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed on it.

Although Morgenthau is not bringing charges against the city or any of its agencies, he puts part of the blame on the Bloomberg administration. "Everyone failed at the Deutsche Bank building," Morgenthau says in a statement. "The contractors violated their contractual provisions and city rules and regulations in the way they conducted the abatement and deconstruction of the building. Worse, they dismantled a large section of the standpipe in the basement with catastrophic results. In turn, the city and its agencies, especially the Fire Department and the Department of Buildings, failed to discover the gaping hole in the building's fire protection system. A single inspection of the basement would have uncovered the disabled standpipe, yet that inspection never took place."

Under its agreement with the D.A.'s office, the city will establish a dedicated force to conduct inspections at buildings undergoing construction, demolition and/or abatement, according to a release from Morgenthau. To be created within the fire department, the team will consist of 25 civilian inspectors and will pay particular attention to standpipes. The fire department will also add two new civilian staff members to conduct random audits of the inspections, add five civilians to its compliance unit and hire three data management technicians to coordinate inspections and check DOB and Department of Environmental Protection databases for violations prior to inspections.