I've seen fire and I've seen crap

RESIDENTS of the bungalow district of Brighton Beach, a 10-block stretch of wooden single-family houses in Brooklyn that stand cheek-by-jowl along narrow lanes, are accustomed to feeling embattled. Since the late 1990s, developers have been snapping up these bungalows, which are half a mile from the ocean, and replacing them with beige concrete apartment buildings.

Burned Bungalows, and an Iffy Market

Now the bungalow dwellers of Brighton Beach face a new threat: arson. Over the past six months, at least 13 fires have been reported in eight vacant buildings, according to Chuck Reichenthal, district manager of Community Board 13. A fire on Nov. 12 on Brighton Fifth Street injured three firefighters, destroyed a bungalow, damaged several adjacent houses and wrecked a car.