An alleged firebug was caught on camera burning a Brooklyn residential building to the ground with a bottle of lighter fluid he purchased at a nearby bodega in Bedford-Stuyvesant, according to the FDNY.
Cassius Moss, who had a past run-in with the FDNY, was arrested and charged with arson for starting a 3-alarm blaze that ripped through a three-story residence at 922 Lafayette Ave. last Wednesday afternoon, according to FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker.
“This reckless individual put the lives of residents and responding firefighters at risk when he set this fire,” Tucker said in a statement. “Thanks to the excellent work of the outstanding Bureau of Fire Investigation, this individual was arrested and will be held responsible for his dangerous act.”
A firefighter was injured fighting the blaze, the fire commissioner added.
Fire marshals conducted a canvas and found video evidence during their investigation that helped track down the 54-year-old culprit.
“He was caught on camera,” Tucker said.
Security footage from a local deli shows Moss, in a stained white t-shirt, picking a bottle of lighter fluid off a shelf in the bodega close to the arson scene.
He then took the accelerant to the residence, poured the contents on the floor, and used a cigarette lighter to ignite the fire before fleeing, Tucker said.
Moss, who was previously arrested by the Bureau of Fire Investigation for arson in July 2023, was arraigned Tuesday and remanded by the court. His case is being prosecuted by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
The FDNY published a post on X showing firefighters battling the blaze as smoke billows from the smoldering heap of the building.
Firefighters reached the scene in three minutes, but by the time they arrived, all three floors of the residence were engulfed in flames, which had started to spread to the neighboring buildings, Tucker said.
The FDNY said the building was a non-fireproof dwelling.
The building where Moss allegedly started the fire completely collapsed, and the neighboring buildings were heavily damaged, Tucker said.
It took 138 firefighters a little more than four hours to bring the raging inferno under control.
Moss is charged with multiple offenses, including second-degree arson and first-degree reckless endangerment.
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