The inspector ordered the standpipe be fixed in April last year, more than a year before two firefighters died in part because the pipe did not work, according to two sources familiar with an ongoing probe.

John Galt Corp., the demolition subcontractor, claimed the standpipe was tested during the week of April 21-28 last year and declared, "Standpipe is in working condition," according to a report obtained by The News.

The circumstances surrounding the standpipe are at the heart of an ongoing criminal probe by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

Since the Aug. 18 blaze at the downtown tower, investigators have learned the site safety inspector discovered the cut pipe long before tragedy struck.

They're trying to determine whether the pipe was repaired and cut again or never repaired, the sources say.

One indicator is found in a photograph investigators believe was taken sometime last December that shows the standpipe with a missing section, said one source familiar with the probe.

If the date is accurate, it could indicate the standpipe remained cut for months without repair.

Either way, it's clear the issue of the cut standpipe surfaced long before the inferno that killed Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino.

Documents indicate the last visual inspection of the pipe by the Fire Department was made in March 2005. The department also failed to inspect the building every 15 days, as required.

Meanwhile, investigators also obtained a memo written May 25 by the state's former downtown construction boss complaining that there weren't enough state supervisors monitoring the Deutsche Bank demolition.

The letter was written by Charles Maikish, former chairman of the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, the state agency overseeing downtown development, just eight days after a pipe plummeted from the doomed tower and crashed through the roof of the firehouse on Liberty St.

Maikish addressed the memo to Avi Schick, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which is overseeing the demolition of the tower.

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