A 55-year-old man was arrested this week and accused of starting a four-alarm fire at a public housing complex in the Bronx that killed one person and injured 14 others on Saturday morning, according to the police.
The man, identified by the police as Samuel Calderon, had dismantled a stove inside the Boston Secor Houses on Bivona Street, starting a gas leak inside that soon developed into flames, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter.
Mr. Calderon, who the police say is homeless, had entered an apartment in the building and began taking apart a stove, the official said. The ensuing events left one man dead. He was identified as Ronald McCallister, a 60-year-old man who lived at the complex, according to the police. It was not immediately clear what had caused Mr. McCallister’s death.
Mr. Calderon was charged on Wednesday with murder, manslaughter, burglary and a slate of other charges in connection with the blaze and Mr. McCallister’s death.
The fire, on the upper floors of a 17-story tower, broke out early Saturday, just as a severe winter storm was inching toward New York. Roughly 150 homes were evacuated, forcing scores of residents onto the city’s freezing streets as firefighters battled the flames for hours.
The fire, and the resulting death, shined a light on the often dire conditions in New York City’s network of 2,410 public housing buildings.
Over the last two years, the Boston Secor complex, which includes four residential towers and houses nearly 1,180 people, has received nearly 50 complaints regarding maintenance issues, pests and heat and power outages, according to records from the Housing Preservation & Development agency.
Multiple residents on the building’s upper floors said they began to smell a strong gas odor late on Friday. One resident, Deloris Gaddy, who lives on the 15th floor, said she heard a whooshing sound and smelled a strong odor coming from her kitchen.
Firefighters responding to the reports of a leak arrived at the building and began to check residents’ stoves and gas lines. While they were there, an explosion erupted, sending bricks flying and smoke billowing throughout the building, residents said.
While inside the building, firefighters discovered Mr. McCallister and a 37-year-old man who was unconscious. Emergency medical workers who arrived soon after pronounced Mr. McCallister dead and took the 37-year-old, who was in critical condition, to a nearby hospital. They also took five more people, all of whom were stable, to a hospital, the police said.
The 37-year-old man, whose name has not been publicly released by the authorities, remained in critical condition on Thursday morning, the law enforcement official said.
It was not immediately clear if Mr. Calderon had remained at the building after the blaze began, the official said. But on Wednesday afternoon, the police arrested and charged him in connection with the episode.
Maia Coleman is a reporter for The Times covering the New York Police Department and criminal justice in the New York area.
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