by MATTHEW CHAYES
As top city officials revealed that careless cigarette smoking most likely sparked the inferno that killed two firefighters, the men's friends expressed dismay that construction workers at the former Deutsche Bank building hadn't been more careful.
"They are all grown men, and they should have known better," said Roberta Venturino, 55, who lived next door to Robert Beddia on Staten Island and would watch over the veteran firefighter's house when Beddia worked long shifts at Engine Company 24 in Greenwich Village.
The deaths of Beddia, 53, and firefighter Joseph Graffagnino, 33, came less than two months after a sloppily disposed cigarette sparked a fire at an illegal apartment in Williamsburg, killing firefighter Daniel Pujdak, 23.
Beddia's and Graffagnino's neighbors shook their heads when they learned that construction crews reportedly took smoke breaks in the building near Ground Zero, close to polyurethane sheets, flammable liquids and plywood.
"People shouldn't smoke in a place like that. There was a lot of debris on the floor. There was a lot of flammable stuff," said Mario Vigorito, who lives next door to Graffagnino's family in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. "Of course that's a danger. ... People who smoke should have some consideration."
Sally Regenhard, whose son Christian, 28, of Ladder 131, Engine 279 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, died in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, said yesterday's announcement didn't make the government entities that hired the building contractor any less responsible.
"Careless smoking may have started the fire, but gross and wanton disregard for any and all safety principles is what caused the death of the firefighters," said Regenhard, who founded the group Skyscraper Safety Campaign after her son's death.
Numerous violations had been issued at the site, and fire marshals found that the building had no functioning standpipe.
John McDonnell, who heads the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, called the lack of a functioning water source and the lax enforcement of a smoking ban inside the building a "criminal act."
Beddia's neighbors pointed out that the veteran firefighter was a smoker who would not light a cigarette indoors.
"Bobby didn't even smoke in his house," Venturino said. "He came out and sat on his stoop to smoke."
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