Arson investigators are looking into whether the Brooklyn fire that killed five on Saturday, and forced one woman to throw her two children from a third-story window, could have been sparked by a jilted boyfriend. A man seen fleeing the scene around 2:30 a.m., when the fire started, may have been owed money by a woman living on the second floor, some sources say. "We're treating it as a homicide," a police source told the Daily News. Meanwhile in Brooklyn as well as in Guatemala, where relatives of the fire's victims still reside, loved ones are mourning the immense loss.
The fire started in the hallway of the three-story building in Bensonhurst—according to investigators that's a deadly spot, because it blocked FDNY from getting to the building's upper floors. "Any time someone starts a fire in a stairwell, it's a deadly fire," one investigator told the NY Post. "It's the worst you can get." However, they're having trouble getting information about the alleged arsonist since many second-floor dwellers—all illegal immigrants from Guatemala—have disappeared. The Buildings Department is currently investigating whether the apartment was illegally subdivided, and whether that added to the fire's fury, says the NY Times.
The victims of the fire included Luisa Ordonez—the mom who threw her young kids out the window to save them—and four other men. Ordonez's little girl, who fractured her head upon hitting the sidewalk, is expected to survive, and her big brother is unwounded. In Brooklyn hundreds gathered at a church to mourn, including her husband who had loved Louisa since their childhood in the highland village of San Andres Xecul. Back in Guatemala three sisters were dismayed to learn about the fire—their three husbands who had traveled to America in search of work were among the deceased.
