Ring of fire at Hoyt Playground

Hoyt Playground Fire @CitizenApp

24-32 31st St Yesterday 10:08:31 PM EST

The Elmhurst Horror

 

 Impunity City

It happened on a cold early morning just an hour before sunrise, 6 days before Christmas, a 5-alarm fire engulfed a three family house. The inferno spread so rapaciously that it instantly killed three men as they desperately tried to flee while trapped in their rooms, their only exit was sliding doors by the balcony on the second floor, which were locked. It also torched the three floor house attached to it, making both structures inhabitable.

Before the deadly blaze the house was proficiently and exceedingly habitable. Since the fire was extinguished, a lot of mystery still surrounds this tragedy. Not much is known about the tenants; especially their names which have not been identified, notably the three who perished in the inferno except for their ethnicity. The one tenant who survived the destruction and the deaths, also refused to be identified.

This house had an incredible lengthy record of housing violations going back 4 years with over $200,000 in fines. Mostly in the last two years, the former landlord had repurposed what was once a nice two family house and transformed it into a makeshift boarding house with single room occupations constructing seven rooms on each floor from the basement to the attic. Even the garage wasn’t spared as the original landlord , Mumarrawa Mahmood, managed to convert it into a rental where the superintendent of the house lived and added more dwellings to it even after repeated visits and fines by the Department Of Buildings.

 This house must have been a sanctuary for the victims of this city's perpetual housing crisis (especially in two terms under Mayor de Blasio), especially those working check to check and undocumented immigrants, essential workers mostly doing gig jobs delivering food or driving for apps and working construction building towers they will never afford to live in.

 

 

 

 

 

Queens Is Burning: Restaurant owner torches his business

Patch 

 The owner of Ignited Restaurant & Lounge in Astoria has been arrested on a federal arson charge, after fire marshals accused him of starting fires that had the Steinway Street enterprise living up to its name.

New Jersey man Asif Raja stands accused of using a flammable liquid to set a series of fires inside his hookah lounge the night of Aug. 4, according to the FDNY.

Surveillance video released by authorities shows a man dousing tables and chairs with the liquid, then running as they burst into flames.

The building's automatic sprinkler system put out the fires before firefighters even arrived, the FDNY said. No one was hurt.

"We are extremely grateful that no one was injured during this incident and for the collaboration between all the law enforcement agencies involved in bringing this individual to justice," Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said. 

 Authorities suspect that Raja, 54, set the fires due to financial woes related to the coronavirus pandemic, the New York Post reported.

The business has been closed since March, according to an Instagram post.

A post shared by Ignited Restaurant & Lounge (@ignitedlounge)

Landlord suspected of starting fire in illegally converted Elmhurst house

 

 NY Post

An FDNY dog found traces of accelerant on three gloves inside the car of a Queens landlord whose apartment house burned down in a suspicious fire that killed three people, police sources told The Post.

Cops and fire investigators were searching the home and Toyota 4Runner of Eric Chen in Flushing late Tuesday, when the canine made the discovery, the sources said.

Police seized the SUV, as well as digital recording equipment, a computer monitor and a hard drive, the sources said.

No arrests have been made in the case and no charges have been brought.

Chen, 29, purchased the home at 90-31 48th Ave. in February, and had since tried evict eight tenants who remained in the house.

Building department records show that as many as 60 people may have lived in the home at one point — one of 26 open violations at the three-family Elmhurst home.

Most of the violations occurred before Chen bought the property, records show.

Arson suspected in illegally converted house fire in Elmhurst

 

 

NY Daily News 

 Investigators are narrowing in on arson as the likely cause of a blaze that killed three people in Queens, law enforcement sources said Monday.

 Investigators found traces of an accelerant inside the gutted three-story home on 48th Ave. near 91st St. in Elmhurst, suggesting the deadly fire may have been intentionally set. Other possible causes are still being probed, the sources said.

Security video shows someone leaving the building right before the fire started, the sources said. No suspect has been identified.

 

 

BLM marches through wrong nabe, steals & burns American flags

Something both disturbing and hilariously stupid went down last night, which means it belongs on this blog.

So, Bayside BLM put out a call to its brainwashed to gather in Bushwick to protest "police unions and Q anon". Right off the bat you know this is going to head in the wrong direction. And it literally did!

The fearless black clad chanters marched their outraged tuchuses to Maspeth, to protest outside the home of Ed Mullins, the President of the NYC Sergeants' Benevolent Association:

#JonathanPrice protesters were outside of fascist NYPD sergeants union head Ed Mullins’ house in Maspeth, Queens earlier tonite chanting “cops aren’t workers!” & denouncing his fascism as well as his embrace of QAnon conspiracy theories. pic.twitter.com/hcf1WGxEXQ

— Ash J (@AshAgony) October 6, 2020

There's only one problem: THAT Ed Mullins doesn't live there. Someone with the same name does. That didn't stop Lucha Libre! You may remember this bigoted bloated bloviating bloke from Bayside BLM's Pat Lynch protest.

#Protesters stop marching and call out the #NYPD for their continued #racism and #policebrutality pic.twitter.com/LrszR3aXow

— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) October 6, 2020

BLM then continued their march, and when they came to a patriotic block where homeowners were proudly displaying Old Glory, they stole the flags.

#Maspeth residents clash with #protesters as they catch them stealing #Americanflags off their porches #Queens pic.twitter.com/QcYGz5Uk9X

— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) October 7, 2020

And then set them on fire.

#Protesters burn #Americanflags yanked from people’s porches before #officers swooped in. #burnflag #Queens #protest #NYPD pic.twitter.com/3wUev2LgEh

— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) October 7, 2020

They then proceeded to the town square, where a 9/11 memorial stands, to carry on with the hissy fit. (FYI: Holden's family doesn't look very white. The Sunnyside protest was organized by the 108th Pct Community Council. Holden demanded that the Glendale shelter be closed. There currently isn't one in Maspeth. But why let facts get in the way when you've come this far on a Wrong Way Corrigan mission?)

#Protesters chant “F*ck Bob Holden” because Council Member @BobHoldenNYC voted against the #citybudget to take money away from the police, his continued support of ICE, and his #BackTheBlue support pic.twitter.com/vTEQRjtp48

— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) October 7, 2020

Holden's opponent, meanwhile, was cheering them on from the sidelines.

A quick Google search found Mullins' bio, which reveals the following:

He and his wife Angela a former NYPD detective, have twin sons and reside in Nassau County...He is a member of the Board of Directors for Building Bridges of Long Island, Mercy College School of Business and the National Football League Players Alumni Association where he serves as Treasurer; he has served as a volunteer firefighter in Nassau County, head coach of the men’s ice hockey team at New York University and is a member of the American College Hockey Coaches Association, the Amateur Hockey Coaches Association, USA Hockey and the National Association of Fitness Professionals. In addition to coaching at the collegiate level he continues to dedicate countless hours to youth hockey in the Long Island Amateur Hockey League in New York.

So, they were not just at the wrong house or in the wrong neighborhood. They weren't even in the right county! I guess the fact that the long time president of a police union is not likely to live in a mixed use industrial-residential section of Queens didn't dawn on these geniuses. They also didn't even have the correct union boss on their flyer...

And the award for outstanding pyrotechnics goes to...

From NBC:

A neighbor’s security camera shows a group of people standing in a driveway on East 51 Street, setting off fireworks when a roman candle gets fired directly into a bedroom window. Those outside didn’t seem to notice, and continued to light more off for more than five minutes while flames grew inside the house, the fire department said.

The fire grew quickly, soon swallowing the whole back of the house and a car in the driveway. After the group finally saw the smoke and flames, one man could be seen on security footage trying fruitlessly to put out some of the flames using a garden hose.

Fire marshals arrested Damien Bend and charged the 36-year-old with arson after allegedly starting the inferno when he accidentally shot the illegal fireworks into his own home. The FDNY said that Bend only discovered the fire after going inside to get more fireworks to shoot off.

Friend of family burns down their house after they ask him to leave

 NY Post

 A man who was taken in by a Queens family when he needed a place to stay returned the kindness with unspeakable horror — setting the home ablaze in a gasoline-fueled inferno that not only killed him but also two of his host’s family members, including a 6-year-old girl, police sources and family said Thursday.

David Abreu Nuñez, 27, went off the rails inside the Moreno family’s two-story Elmhurst home on 93rd Street Wednesday afternoon, sparking the top-floor blaze after he was asked to pack up and go.

“We were helping someone and they were asked to leave because we found out certain things about that person and he just lost it,” said homeowner Raul Moreno, referring to Nuñez. “And this is the price we pay for helping somebody.”

Moreno said that Nuñez was a friend of a family member and had been staying at the home since Monday.

“He had no place to go. He was kicked out of his room or his apartment or something like that,” Moreno said. “He had no place to go, so we were like, ‘Stay here for a couple of days, we’ll help you find a place.’”

Moreno added: “Then we found out his past and we just asked him to leave because we had kids in the house.”

Nuñez had “mental issues,” Moreno said, claiming, “He would fabricate a lot of lies … things just didn’t add up. It made us very suspicious.”

“We just asked him to leave in a nice manner. We didn’t force anybody. I just asked him, ‘It’s time for you to leave’ and he just lost it.”

After the blaze, the FDNY found a five-gallon gas can on the floor where the fire started, sources said.

The two-alarm fire left Nuñez, Emma Dominguez, 6, and her 76-year-old grandfather, Claudio Rodriguez, dead, police sources said.

Emma’s mom, 35-year-old Elizabeth Rodriguez, and Emma’s 10-month-old brother, Liam Dominguez-Rodrigo, were critically injured, the sources said.

Homeless people are causing mayhem

From Sunnyside Post:

A homeless man has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with a fatal stabbing in front of Duane Reade on Roosevelt Avenue early Tuesday, police said.

The police arrested Antonio Cabrera, 45, on Friday for the fatal stabbing of Velibor Flores, also homeless, at 12:31 a.m. on July 10 by 60-02 Roosevelt Ave.

From PIX11:

Nail polish remover was thrown on a woman who was then set on fire during an argument at a homeless shelter in Queens, police sources said Friday.

The victim, 51, lives at the Verve Hotel, a women’s homeless shelter on 29th Street in Long Island City, according to police.

That’s where sources said the woman argued with another woman who threw nail polish remover on the victim’s face.

The attacker is accused of igniting the flammable liquid and fleeing.

MS-13 set Flushing fire

From CBS 2:

A suspected MS-13 gang member faces charges after he allegedly set a fire in Queens that left two other members in critical condition, police sources tell CBS2.

Crews were called to the two-alarm house fire around 2 a.m. Monday on 41st Avenue in Flushing.

Investigators later determined a flammable liquid was used to fuel the flames.

Two men, ages 29 and 48, were hospitalized in critical condition.

Sources say they were both MS-13 members squatting inside the vacant residence.

The suspect, 20-year-old Melvin Gongora, had also been staying there, sources say. He was caught on camera fleeing the fire.

Sources say he told arresting officers something to the effect of “I have to get them before they get me.”

Gongora was charged with arson, attempted murder and assault, among others.

Rash of car fires in Woodside

From CBS 2:

Some Queens residents woke on Monday, to find their vehicles on fire.

As CBS2’s Alice Gainer reported, just after midnight a van was set on fire at 56th Street and Queens Boulevard in Woodside.

Police and firefighters responded and put out the flames.

Nearly 3 hours later they were back after a car parked nearby also caught fire.

It’s unclear how the fires were started and whether or not an accelerent was used.

Fire started at ex-squatter house

From PIX11:

We’ve told you all about 83-year-old Aida’s fight, finally evicting the squatters in February.

But in April, another concern: a suspicious fire started in some construction debris near the garage of Aida’s house.

When Byrne’s nephew Patrick came over, he couldn’t believe it.

“When I came in the morning the fence was completely down. He had a lot of lumber here, and it was burnt right here,” Patrick said.

The fire department hasn’t supplied an official report yet. Patrick doesn’t know who may have set the fire, nor do we. But it’s more than Aida should have to bear.

Developers target Elmhurst's 56th Avenue

Remember the QUEENS CRAP story on the suspicious fire at the Elmhurst historic house at 90-11 56th Ave back in October, 2015? It was only purchased recently. A few months later, there was a suspicious fire. The Elmhurst community is currently trying to landmark it and is petitioning Queens Borough President Melinda Katz to assist.

This property as well as the 2 adjacent houses were purchased by LLC developers. It’s funny that one of these other houses also caught on fire too. Now the 3 properties have been filed with the NYC Department of Buildings to split them into 5 lots!

Here’s what the original 3 homes looked like:

Here’s what they look like today after the fires and the start of demolition of one of the house.

Holy cow, what a coincidence! And after Melinda Katz put in all that preservation work! (end sarcasm)

Dope sets himself on fire trying to torch pet store

From CBS 2:

A Queens pet store became the target of a firebomb attack, but the alleged arsonist made an embarrassing mistake.

As CBS2’s Tony Aiello reported, a chair was charred in the attack on the Grand Avenue Pet Shop in Maspeth, but the birds didn’t burn, and the people fast asleep upstairs were safe.

“It would have just incinerated quick! This would have been a big, big, big fire!” store owner Jose Cardona said.

The blaze would have been massive if not for Cardona, who stayed late Sunday to care for a cat as it delivered three kittens.

He was able to grab a hose after a man wearing hoodie threw a Molotov cocktail at the door of the pet shop.

“I didn’t panic. I can’t panic,” Cardona said.

He quickly doused the flames, and prevented major damage to the Maspeth landmark where people who raise and race pigeons, including Mike Tyson, have gathered for decades.

Strip club firebombed

From PIX11:

The search is on Thursday for whomever threw a Molotov cocktail through the window of a strip club in Queens, the same club visited by a New York Knicks player before he was robbed at gunpoint and shot in the knee.

Police said a mystery attacker threw the fiery device into CityScapes Gentlemen’s Club, located on 58th Street in Maspeth, Queens.

The blaze was extinguished by fire crews and no one was hurt, police said.

Arson investigators are on their way to the scene and an investigation is underway.

Is anti-gentrification the ninja's motive?

From DNA Info:

The “ninja” arsonist who's been torching McMansions in Forest Hills is likely a longtime resident fed up with gentrification in his neighborhood and the fires he sets makes him feel he has the power to stop it, experts tell DNAinfo New York.

Louis Garcia, the city’s ex-chief fire marshal and a nationally recognized expert on arson, said the man behind at least seven Forest Hills blazes is infused with power every time he sets a home on fire — attracting increased police and public attention.

“He probably was someone who felt powerless to stop the gentrification and now feels he has power over them by burning their property,” said the 35-year veteran FDNY commander who spent 25 years in the Bureau of Fire Investigation and a decade as the city's chief fire marshal.

“The so-called ninja arsonist in Forest Hills has found a way to stop the gentrification and to feel important. And now, he's getting attention.”

"Copycat arsonist" arrested

From CBS:

A man has been arrested on arson charges for allegedly setting fire to three garbage cans in Flushing, Queens last week.

Samer Shuaib, 36, of Queens, was charged with arson and criminal mischief in the incidents last week, police said.

The fires were all set between 11:49 p.m. and midnight on Wednesday, in garbage cans on the side of 69-02 Austin St., opposite 69-30 Austin St., and in front of 68-40 Austin St., police said.

No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.

Police sources told CBS2 Shuaib told investigators he was intoxicated and in a bad mood at the time of the incidents. He told investigators walked past a dumpster and smelled something foul, so he decided to light it on fire, sources said.

Forest Hills now has second arsonist

From DNA Info:

Three small dumpster fires — including one in front of the 112th Precinct station house — erupted on Austin Street in one night, deepening anxiety in a neighborhood recently targeted by a fire-starting "ninja."

All three dumpster fires set late Wednesday night into Thursday morning were lit along Austin Street, a major commercial strip in the neighborhood, fire and police officials said.

FDNY spokesman Frank Dwyer said in an email that the fires “are suspicious and are being investigated by Fire Marshals and the NYPD.”

Police have released surveillance video of a suspect wanted in connection with the dumpster fires.

A spokesman for the NYPD said Friday that the two patterns appear to be unrelated and the suspect does not match the description of the arsonist being sought in connection with the other arson pattern in the neighborhood.

Police fear this is a copycat.

New video of Forest Hills arsonist

From PIX11:

There's a new view of a serial arsonist terrorizing the Queens neighborhood of Forest Hills, where at least seven fires have been intentionally set in less than two months.

A home surveillance camera is giving investigators their best glimpse yet of a man suspected of destroying new homes by burning them. The firebug seem to target buildings under construction, investigators said.

"He appears to be a young male of unknown ethnicity," FDNY spokesman Robert Boyce said.

The video was taken this past Sunday, about the time of the seventh and most recent fire. In that case, a home on 69th Road was torched for the second time.

Police are ramping up the search.

Buks claim Forest Hills arsons are hate crimes

From the Times Ledger:

The Bukharian Jewish Center of Forest Hills is calling a series of fires throughout Forest Hills a hate crime and is offering $50,000 reward for tips after the latest suspected arson hit the home of a rabbi early Sunday morning.

A police spokeswoman said the investigation was ongoing and that the NYPD could not confirm whether the arsons are a hate crime yet.

The house burned in the most recent incident belongs to Rabbi Valman Zvulunov, the director of the Bukharian Jewish Center’s Yeshiva, who lives in Maspeth.

At an emergency meeting convened by an ad hoc committee of leaders from the Bukharian Jewish Center Sunday morning, Zvulunov received a call about his house being burned at about 2 a.m., he said, noting that in the last incident, someone set a small fire to a doorway and the Fire Department had put it out.

Rafael Nektalov, editor and publisher of the Bukharian Times, a weekly newspaper, said every victim is a member of the Bukharian community, noting that if the incident had occurred in Russia or France, “there would have been headlines about fires in the Jewish quarter.”

Aron Borukhov, a lawyer who spoke on behalf of the ad hoc committee, who is also part of the committee, suggested that cops put a patrol at every construction site and 360-degree-view cameras at every intersection.

He explained that because there is a permit posted at construction sites showing who the owner is, the arsonist knows who owns the houses.

“It (fires) has been only the Jewish community,” he said. “Nobody else. We can only make conclusions from what we have seen.”

These sites most likely are targets because they are unguarded at night. An arsonist is not going to light an occupied house on fire. A posted permit generally lists the name of the contractor that applied for it, not the owner of the house. And if you can afford to build a mansion, you should be able to afford a night watchman to protect it.

UPDATE: The biker has been ruled out as a suspect.