Saavedra was washing the wall next to the pipe when it fell. He said that everyone in the area was startled by the noise it made, but that they simply continued working for the next half-hour. Saavedra said that the pipe fell shortly before the end of the workday. He was assigned to work on another floor the day after the pipe fell and he did not return to the basement.

Saavedra’s testimony appears to conflict with earlier testimony from Adolpho Ortiz, an abatement foreman working in the sub-basement when the pipe fell in the basement. Ortiz testified that he heard the pipe fall and immediately rushed to the basement and summoned supervisors to the scene.

Saavedra said that during the 30 minutes he continued working, no one came to see what happened to the pipe. He added that the job site was so loud it was possible that no one other than workers in the immediate area heard the pipe fall.

Although State Supreme Court Judge Rena K. Uviller indicated she would limit testimony about unsafe conditions on the job site, she allowed records of slag fires and sparks in the two months prior to the fatal fire. These were noted in daily logs kept by Michael Colletti, an apprentice with subcontractor Site Safety LLC

The Manhattan-based construction safety management firm was engaged by URS Corp., site representative for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. LMDC — created after 9/11 to help plan and coordinate the rebuilding of lower Manhattan — owned the building site when the fire occurred.

Colletti, who had joined Site Safety three months before the fire, was responsible for making sure plywood cladding was applied to the exterior of the building to contain falling debris during demolition. Three months before the fire, a pipe from the demolition site fell through the roof of a firehouse across the street. “I was told the safety of the site was Bovis’s responsibility,” he testified.

On direct examination Colletti testified that he had no experience in plumbing or fire suppression systems and that he did not know how to recognize or trace a standpipe. Yet he later testified that he was concerned about what he thought was an open-ended standpipe riser in one of the building’s stairwells.

Colletti recalled touring the building with a city Dept. of Buildings inspector who saw the riser and demanded that it be tested. When defendant Melofchik allegedly refused, Colletti said the inspector “was pretty ticked off,” as was Melofchik. “They were going at it,” he added. Colletti then said that he and the inspector mentioned the riser to a representative from URS, but he was not aware whether the riser was tested.

Colletti’s log indicates that he mentioned the slag fires and sparks to several supervisors from Bovis and URS, but not to any of the defendants. Colletti explained that because he did not have contact with Melofchik on a daily basis, he told Melofchik of the fires after the fact.

Uviller has told prosecutors to rest their case by May 31, at which time the defense will present its witnesses.