Members of Brooklyn's tight-knit Guatemalan community were shocked to learn that one of their own had admitted to setting the deadly fire that killed five on Saturday. Daniel Ignacio, an ex-con and a bad drunk, told cops he was inebriated when he lit a roll of toilet paper on fire near the entrance of his apartment building and that he was possessed by "demons or devils." Later, the alleged arsonist left the building via a fireman's ladder, helping to save a child that was passed to him through a window, but leaving one of his roommates to perish. “Are you sure he’s Guatemalan?” asked Pedro Ordoñez, uncle of the child's mother, who died in the fire. “It’s painful that this is happening among paisanos.”
For seven months Ignacio—an illegal immigrant and a day laborer—had lived in the Bensonhurst building, among neighbors who remembered him fondly enough, despite his weakness for drink. In 2002 he was drunk when cops caught him with a wallet, a pen and a plastic comb he'd stolen from an apartment (he'd also eaten food left on the stove). Officials deported him, but he sneaked back across the border. This time he faces a charge of arson and five counts of second-degree murder, reports the NY Times. Surveillance footage led to his arrest. "He confessed to the arson," a police source told the Post. "He didn't indicate any rational motive." Once he's served his time he'll be handed over to immigration officials.
Most startling is that in the wake of the tragedy, many of the tenement's residents (about 20 Guatemalans were crowded onto the building's two floors) hailed Ignacio as a hero. On Monday when some of his roommates spoke at a memorial, they singled out the accused man for his role in helping to save Louisa Ordonez's 2-year-old son and her husband Miguel Chan. But, according to the Daily News, the mood was different yesterday when the suspect was hauled away by police. "Murderer!" shouted the crowd.
