Results tagged “arson”

When parishioners at The Glory of Christ Church in the Parkchester section of The Bronx arrived for service on Sunday morning, they found their church—located in a formerly run-down synagogue that they'd lovingly rescued from decay—reduced to a smoldering ruin. The fire, which broke out around 4 a.m., took 100 firefighters to extinguish and is being investigated as a hate crime. The walls were spray-painted with a pentagram, "666," and "Hail to Satan," along with, "We hate Jews and Christians" and "GET OFF OUR BLOCK." After stealing $300 from the offering box, vandals stacked chairs in the sanctuary and set them on fire.

Just days after a student was suspended from Stuyvesant High School for allegedly setting fires, investigators say a copycat arsonist has been lighting blazes in the esteemed Lower Manhattan school — and taunting police in hieroglyphics.

A 16-year-old Stuyvesant High School student was caught on camera setting two fires in school bathrooms this week, according to police. Cops arrested junior Mohammed Hassan after obtaining surveillance tapes that apparently show the teen entering a seventh-floor bathroom at 1:13 pm and leaving two minutes later as a trash can went up in flames. At 1:16 pm, a different camera purportedly captures Hassan entering and quickly exiting another bathroom, leaving "bright orange and yellow flames rising out of a large garbage can," according to investigators quoted by the Daily News.

A mother of two was set on fire in the doorway of her Long Island City apartment yesterday morning by her estranged boyfriend and father of one of the children. Neighbors in the woman's Queensbridge Houses building say the woman had previously thrown the suspect, 25-year-old Kehman Clark, out of the home. He returned to visit yesterday morning, but stormed off after a domestic dispute, only to return with a can of gasoline.

In what must be the least surprising news item of the day, the law firm that was planning on hiring Brian Schroeder — the 26-year-old Harvard Law School grad suspected of setting a fire in a chapel containing the remains of unidentified victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — has revoked its offer. The firm Sidley Austin recanted on its decision to hire Schroeder, who turned himself in to police after setting a blaze on Saturday morning that destroyed flowers, photos, and other mementos inside Memorial Park on the corner of First Avenue and East 30th Street. According to cops, he set the fire on a drunk dare, but Schroeder's attorney claims the Texas native, who moved to New York to accept the law job, had been drugged.

The Harvard Law School grad suspected of setting a fire inside a memorial for unidentified victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks claims he was drugged before he torched the shrine. A lawyer representing 26-year-old Brian Schroeder said someone might have "put something in his drink" before the 26-year-old Ivy Leaguer — who moved to New York to accept a job at a law firm — set a blaze that destroyed flowers, notes, photos, and other mementos inside Memorial Park at First Avenue and East 30th Street. In fact, the attorney claims that Schroeder didn't realize he was setting a fire in a 9/11 memorial, "although police sources said he made sure to gather many of the teddy bears left by victims' families to start the fire," according to the Post.

Acting on a dare, a drunk Harvard Law School grad allegedly set fire to a chapel yesterday that houses the remains of unidentified victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The perp — identified as 26-year-old Brian Schroeder — broke into Memorial Park near the corner of First Avenue and East 30th Street and set the blaze at around 9 am. The fire did not get to the remains, which are kept in climate-controlled containers awaiting advances in DNA technology that might allow them to be identified, but notes, photos, flowers, and other mementos inside the white-tented sanctuary were either stolen or burned. Schroeder turned himself in to police last night.

A 44-year-old mother of two died and three others were critically injured by a fire that tore through a Flushing apartment early Sunday morning. The deceased, Bianca Wisniewski, was due in federal court today for a hearing in her $20 million sexual-harassment lawsuit against Total Safety Consulting and JPMorgan Chase. Four of the 110 firefighters at the scene suffered minor injuries, and the fire was ultimately contained to the single apartment, because the cement and steel walls stopped it from spreading.

A man was arrested for starting a fire in March that tore through six local businesses and caused an estimated $2 million in property damage. 40-year-old William Crean of the Bronx has been charged with 2nd degree arson and reckless endangerment for the March 22nd fire in Westchester Square. He could face up to 25 years if convicted. The three-alarm blaze required 33 FDNY units and 140 firefighters and took three hours to control.

Authorities investigating a fire in Central Islip yesterday discovered that the three bodies of adults were actually shot to death. Suffolk Count police also said that the fire was arson and a witness described, "The house was engulfed Every window, every doorway, flames were shooting out. There was no way you could have even attempted to get in there." Two children managed to survive the fire; Newsday reports, "Two children - a 6-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl - were standing outside the burning home when firefighters arrived. They had been asleep in a built-in garage converted into a bedroom and were able to get out a side exit." Two of the victims were identified as Katrice Daniels, 31, and Luis Calixto, 19; the third victim was a female in her 20s (Calixto's mother suggested it could be her son's girlfriend). Brooklyn resident Kim Graves had been renting out the home, though she did not disclose who the renters were.

Earlier this summer, a massive two-alarm fire destroyed part of a clubhouse and half the golf carts at the Kissena Golf Course in Queens (luckily no one was injured). Yesterday, Queens DA Richard Brown announced that 17-year-old Fresh Meadows resident Christopher Cassella was arrested and charged with 39 counts of third-degree arson (38 golf carts+clubhouse) and one count of criminal mischief—his alleged actions caused $400,000 worth of damage. Video apparently showed Cassella and two others who have not been apprehended pouring liquid over the carts. Brown said, "This was no teenage prank. The fire could easily have caused serious injuries to responding firefighters or any people who may have been on or around the golf course."

Newsday reports, "A Woodmere woman poured lighter fluid on her estranged husband's baby and throughout his Hewlett Bay Park home in a failed attempt to kill him, his fiancee and the baby because she was angry over money and custodial issues." Esther Hershko was arrested on Wednesday, after neighbors noticed a strange car (her SUV) backed into another driveway. According to the Post, "Esther Hershko, who suffers from cancer and has been separated from her husband for six years," had poured Kingsford charcoal lighter fluid all over her husband's bedroom floor and "then calmly walked outside, possibly to retrieve more lighter fluid and matches or a lighter, all of which were found nearby." Apparently the fumes from the lighter fluid caused her estranged husband Itzhak Hershko's dog to go into seizures, which also alerted Itzhak Hershko. It's unclear whether Esther Hershko knew her son was also in the house, as well as the son's cousin. She was charged with five counts of second-degree attempted murder, first-degree burglary, second-degree attempted arson and fourth-degree. Itzhak Hershko said his baby is fine; the dog is also expected to recover.

An employee at the Target in East New York is accused of conspiring with her boyfriend to set fire to the store as a diversion while they stole $8,000 worth of flat-screen televisions. And they would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling surveillance cameras! The FDNY says video depicts Jared Devonis, who was fired from Target two weeks ago, using a lighter to start a fire in the paper towel aisle.

A Long Island man made an unsuccessful attempt at taking the life of his landlord, whose house he was renting a room in, by setting the residence on fire Friday night. Not as fortunate as the landlord and his girlfriend who both escaped the blaze safely was the man's boa constrictor—its head was cut off and left in front of the landlord's door before the fire was set. 45-year-old Jose Rios was arrested early Saturday morning in Central Islip after showing up at his sister's home wielding a knife and telling everyone there, "I can't go home. I killed everyone in that house and you're next." The landlord, Larry Maxwell, and his girlfriend, Jorene Palms, were able to get out of the house because Rios tried to alert Palms of the fire he had ignited with gasoline and a lighter. Rios later told police that he "wanted (Maxwell) to die." Maxwell said that although Rios sometimes behaved erratically, he "could be the nicest guy you'd ever meet." Charges for Rios include arson and animal cruelty for killing his snake Max, which may or may not have been named after the landlord.

Around 3:15 a.m. this morning, firefighters responded to a blaze on Columbus Avenue near West 67th Street. Which is just up the street from WABC's studios, and naturally the station has the scoop, "A woman was taken into custody after allegedly setting an Upper West Side apartment on fire during a dispute... The woman, who police described as 'emotionally disturbed,' was seen throwing clothing and other belongings out the window before the flames erupted." The firefighters were able to put out the fire quickly and the woman was taken to Bellevue. Related: A man accused of setting four cars and a lobby (all on the UWS, where he also left notes describing his issues with the government) on fire was indicted yesterday; cops apparently found "a sawed-off shotgun, 200 rounds of ammunition, gasoline and a day planner noting the date and time of each of the fires" in his apartment.

The 19-year-old former volunteer firefighter who is now suspected of setting a building fire that left four dead was apparently suspended from the Lawrence Fire Department because he set a fire in May 2008. Newsday reports that Caleb Lacey lit a fire in a Dumpster behind an exercise club he went to and "told police about the earlier blaze during questioning" about the fatal fire last month. Lacey's lawyer said that his client just burned garbage and leaves, "It's really irrelevant to the allegations. It doesn't prove anything," and insists his client is innocent. However, police believe that Lacey wanted to play the hero, and doused a stairwell with accelerant, set it ablaze, and went back to the firehouse to wait for the 911 call. With their only exit blocked (the fire escape was removed earlier), a mother and three children were fatally trapped.

Authorities say that a teenage volunteer firefighter had a hero complex after charging him yesterday with four counts of murder for setting a nearby home on fire with its family inside. 19-year-old Caleb Lacey knew that a neighboring family of his was inside the North Lawrence apartment building when he set it on fire with gasoline so that he could be the one to put it out.

A volunteer firefighter was charged with arson and four counts of murder for allegedly setting a fire that killed a mother and three children in Lawrence last month. WCBS 2 describes Caleb Lacey, 19, as a former volunteer firefighter, but Newsday says he was a volunteer with the Lawrence/Cedarhurst Fire Department at the time of the fire. The fire occurred in the stairwell of a building with a laundromat on the first floor and apartments on the second; officials had found traces of accelerant at the scene. Some tenants survived by jumping out of the apartment's windows, but others died—and it was discovered the building's fire escape was removed in 2003. No details were given for a motive.

The fire in a Lawrence apartment building that claimed the lives of a mother and three of her children has been called "suspicious" by Nassau County officials. Newsday reports that "natural and accidental causes for the fire have been ruled out, and that agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would be assisting the police department's arson/bomb squad and homicide squad in the investigation."

The 24-year-old trader who set a fire in 7 World Trade Center early yesterday morning apparently was trying to send a rescue signal. According to the NY Post, 24-year-old Ryan Brinkerhoff "got stuck in a freight elevator and then foolishly tried to get out by starting a signal fire."

Investigators looking for the cause in Sunday's fatal Queens fire now suspect that the ex-girlfriend of the most recent victim may have started the fire. It is believed Agnes Bermudez doused William Salazar with an accelerant, possibly carpet cleaner. Salazar died from his injuries yesterday.

Two men were found dead when firefighters arrived to battle a fire in the Tompkinsville section of Staten Island. The fire at a vacant building was so intense that it took firefighters two hours to get it under control.

The fire in a three-story building that killed one yesterday morning has claimed two more deaths. A 58-year-old man was in an apartment, dead of smoke inhalation and his wife and 20-year-old son died later at a hospital.

In April 2007, a Columbia graduate student was raped and tortured for 19 hours in her Hamilton Terrace apartment. More than a year later, her suspected rapist is now in court, facing 71 criminal charges including attempted murder, arson, rape and sodomy.

Rapper 50 Cent's ex-girlfriend accused him of arson and much worse after the house he owns and she lives in burned down yesterday. Shaniqua Tompkins, who is the mother of 50 Cent's 10-year-old son Marquise, told reporters, "He's trying to kill me and his own child. He told me so."

Earlier this year it was reported that 50 Cent wanted his ex-girlfriend, Shaniqua Tompkins, and their son out of his Dix Hills, Long Island home (a wish he had enforced by a judge). While 50 didn't live there, the deed is in his name, and he pays Tompkins $6,700 a month, including cash for her to find a new home for their son and her boyfriend (who has been living under the rapper's roof).

Police are investigating the suspected robbery of a 26-year-old man who was found naked and badly burned in the lobby of a Polo Grounds building at 8th Ave. and 155th St. in Manhattan. Trevor Lyons' clothes were found on the 16th floor of the building, where it appears he was attacked at about 8 a.m. Saturday morning.

Saturday night, after putting out a car fire near the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, firefighters found two bodies in the trunk. The ME's office says they were victims of "homicidal violence, including blunt-force trauma of the head," before being burned.

Last October, a fire was started outside the Engine 34/Ladder 21 firehouse on West 38th Street. The fire was put out, but upon investigation, it turned out the ones who set it were firefighters from different firehouses! A surveillance cameras actually captured Michael Izzo and Richard Capece purchasing the gasoline at a gas station and later splashing the stationhouse's garage door and igniting it, setting off what was described as a fireball.

In the past few days, some young teenagers have been arrested for some alarming crimes. Yesterday afternoon, a 13-year-old girl allegedly set fire to some papers in a classroom, causing a fire that injured six people. And a few days before that, a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old were arrested for killing an 18-year-old!