The two firefighters who died battling the Deutsche Bank blaze were doomed by a tragic series of failures in a cursed building that should have been torn down long ago.

Two of the standpipes that firefighters should have been able to tap for water were not working.

The polyurethane that demolition workers had laid down to prevent toxic dust from spreading fed the flames.

And while they were battling the fire on the 14th floor, Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joe Graffagnino ran out of air in their oxygen tanks - and later died.

The sad litany was laid out yesterday by fire officials as two heartbroken families prepared to say farewell to two good men - and anger grew among the rank and file over how firefighters were sent into a death trap.

"They walked into a horror show," Gov. Spitzer said of the fallen firefighters as he toured the scarred skyscraper. "If the building had been deconstructed by now, clearly this tragedy would not have occurred."

Ominous graffiti that read "This house will burn down!" was found in an employee changing area and sent rumors flying through the work site yesterday that Saturday's fire might have been set deliberately.

FDNY sources said the scrawl had been there for months and a discarded cigarette, an electrical spark or a carelessly secured tool were the likeliest culprits.

The 41-story building overlooking Ground Zero was badly damaged after the Sept. 11 attacks when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed on it. It was slowly being torn down.

Errol Cockfield, a spokesman for the building's owner, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., defended the pace of the deconstruction.

"This is not a building you can just take a wrecking ball to," he said. "Every floor has to be thoroughly cleaned and monitored by regulators before it can be deconstructed. And that process takes a tremendous amount of time."

Firefighters union President Steve Cassidy was furious: "It is devastating to lose two firefighters, especially in a building that is essentially a vertical Love Canal and a toxic pile of rubbish. This is inexcusable."

Efforts to tear the building down have been hindered by political fights, labor disputes and the recovery of more than 700 human remains. Also, there were concerns that tearing it down haphazardly would contaminate the air in lower Manhattan.

Spitzer said that in the wake of Saturday's fire, "every test that has come back on asbestos and what we call the fine particulate matter has been negative."

Beddia, 53, and Graffagnino, 33, were based at Engine Company 24/Ladder Company 5, a firehouse in Greenwich Village that lost 11 men on 9/11.

Their fates may have been sealed early on when firefighters tried to turn on the water in the standpipes and discovered that valves were missing.

Instead of funneling water into the hoses, they sent water cascading into the basement.

"All that water could have, would have, might have saved those guys," a Fire Department source said. "Everything that could go wrong, did. And two guys died."

Bovis Lend Lease, the company in charge of cleaning and dismantling the building, was required to maintain a working standpipe during the deconstruction. There was also a third standpipe in the building. It is unclear if firefighters attempted to use it or if it worked. All standpipes will be tested today.

Firefighters hauled hoses upstairs. As they climbed higher, the smoke got thicker and blacker. On the 14th floor, they found flames devouring the plastic and plywood framing that workers had installed so that asbestos could safely be removed.

"They went into a cauldron," Spitzer said.

Beddia and Graffagnino were carrying oxygen tanks that are supposed to have 40 minutes of air, but only last 20 to 25 minutes in fire conditions, sources said.

Neither man would have wasted air running up the steps, and they would have donned their masks only when they reached the fire, the sources said.

The 14th floor was a maze of plastic sheeting, smoke and flames - and the two men got trapped. "Other guys managed to scramble out," a source said.

At the Engine 24/Ladder 5 firehouse on Sixth Ave. and W. Houston St., well-wishers brought flowers and some wiped away tears as purple and black bunting was hung. Art Weber, 35, a Clifton, N.J., firefighter, left a bouquet of yellow daisies. "Even though I don't work in New York, they're our brethren and we support them," he said.

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