by JOHN SULLIVAN
As two dozen firefighters in dress uniforms looked on, a structural engineer was charged on Monday with lying to city investigators looking into the circumstances of a building collapse that killed two of their colleagues in 2006.
The engineer, Jose D. Vargas, 82, pleaded not guilty to three counts of perjury in State Supreme Court in the Bronx. He was accused of lying to the City Department of Investigation, which was looking into a fire that killed Lt. Howard J. Carpluk Jr. and Firefighter Michael C. Reilly on Aug. 27, 2006. The firefighters were trapped when the floor of a discount store on Walton Avenue collapsed beneath them.
Under an honor system that allows professional engineers and architects to approve certain building alterations, Mr. Vargas had certified plans to renovate the building, at 1575 Walton Avenue, five years before the fire. A Fire Department report later concluded that the renovations went beyond the scope of the plans, and that the work was badly done. The report said Mr. Vargas did not conduct a final inspection of the work, as required by city regulations.
The Fire Department concluded that rotten support beams under the first floor caused the collapse. The report said that if Mr. Vargas had thoroughly inspected the building, he would have discovered the rot.
Armando Montano, Mr. Vargas's lawyer, disputed the Fire Department's conclusion, saying that Mr. Vargas reviewed only work on the roof and that there was no reason for him to check the basement's supports.
In a statement on Monday, the Bronx district attorney, Robert T. Johnson, said a number of factors contributed to the fatal collapse, adding, "it is our determination that there is insufficient evidence to hold Vargas, or anyone else criminally responsible for the deaths."
But prosecutors said, nonetheless, that Mr. Vargas had misled investigators who studied the collapse, telling them that he had inspected the building and that he had seen the steel called for in the roof renovations when no steel was ever installed.
Those statements were made to city investigators in October, according to the indictment.
"The conduct charged in this indictment is astonishing for a licensed professional who was supposed to assist investigators looking into a fire that killed two firefighters," Rose Gill Hearn, the commissioner of the Department of Investigation, said in a statement. "Instead, this engineer is accused of misrepresenting the facts and exacerbating an already tragic event."
Mr. Montano said after the arraignment that Mr. Vargas "had no intention to deceive anybody." He said Mr. Vargas was responding to questions based on construction plans that he had not seen for several years. He said that Mr. Vargas based his responses on the plans, which called for steel.
"He believed when they were questioning him that they had followed the plans," he said.
Though Mr. Vargas was not charged in connection with the deaths, several of the firefighters who looked on during the arraignment said they felt the tragedy could have been avoided if the renovations had been more professionally handled.
"We would like to see somebody pay the price for cutting corners," said Lt. Steve Wall, of Lieutenant Carpluk's company, Engine 42.
Dmitry Kiper contributed reporting.
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