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Suspect in Fatal Queens Fire Fought With Homeowner Who Took Him In Irate Houseguest, Asked to Leave, Set Fatal Fire in Queens
(about 7 hours later)
A fire that killed three people in Queens on Wednesday appeared to have been intentionally set by a man that was staying at the apartment and had fought with the home’s owner, police and fire officials said Thursday. Rafelina Moreno was known for opening the doors of her two-story house in Queens to all who were in need, neighbors and family members said.
The blaze killed two men, including the suspect, and a 6-year-old girl when it swept through the top floor of a two-story home in East Elmhurst on Wednesday afternoon, police officials said. A woman and a baby boy were also critically injured. On Wednesday afternoon, her house of hospitality turned into one of profound tragedy.
Investigators think the 23-year-old man, identified by officials familiar with the investigation as David Abreu Nuñez, started the fire using some kind of accelerant before he died in the blaze, the police said. An irate houseguest, whom Ms. Moreno had asked to leave, set a fire that swept quickly through the second-floor apartment where members of her family from the Dominican Republic were staying, the police and fire officials said. The blaze killed a 6-year-old girl and her grandfather and left the girl’s mother and infant brother seriously injured.
The homeowner’s son identified the two others killed as Ema Dominguez, 6, and her grandfather, Claudio Rodriguez, 76, and the woman injured in the fire as Ema’s mother, Elizabeth Rodriguez, 35. “We never thought something like this would happen,” Ms. Moreno’s son, Devin Moreno, said on Thursday, as he stood outside the burned-out residence in East Elmhurst.
The fire had been deemed suspicious and fire marshals were still investigating its cause as of Thursday morning, a Fire Department spokesman said. The blaze took the life of the man officials believe started it, 23-year-old David Abreu Nuñez.
The department said the fire was incendiary, with an “ignitable liquid” used as an accelerant. It was still testing to see what type of liquid was involved, but officials familiar with the investigation said a gasoline can was found on the premises. The other victims were Ema Dominguez, 6, and Claudino “Claudio” Rodriguez, 76. Ema’s mother, Elizabeth Rodriguez, 35, was expected to survive, but her 10-month-old brother, Lian Dominguez, was still in extremely critical condition on Thursday afternoon, according to the police. All of them were relatives of Ms. Moreno who had been visiting from the Dominican Republic.
Mr. Nuñez, a law enforcement official familiar said, had been staying at the home, at 23-49 93rd Street, since Monday. The day before, he had been arrested in the Bronx for filing a false police report, court records show. The official said that Mr. Nuñez had falsely claimed to have been sexually assaulted. “It’s a sad afternoon here in East Elmhurst,” Daniel A. Nigro, the city’s fire commissioner, said on Wednesday.
Mr. Nuñez told the home’s owner, Rafelina Moreno, that he was down on his luck after being assaulted and robbed, the official added, and she let Mr. Nuñez stay at her home. Fire officials said that an “ignitable liquid” had been used as an accelerant to start the fire. Investigators were still conducting tests to see which liquid was involved, but two officials familiar with the investigation said a gasoline can was found on the premises.
Ms. Moreno told investigators on Wednesday that Ms. Moreno had allowed Mr. Nuñez to stay there temporarily, but they had recently had some type of dispute, a police spokesman said. Mr. Nuñez had arrived at the house, at 23-49 93rd Street in East Elmhurst, on Monday. He told Ms. Moreno and her family that he needed a place to stay after he had been robbed and assaulted, Mr. Moreno said.
“They had a falling out,” a police spokesman said Wednesday. “He called her today and made some statements indicating this was intentional.” Mr. Nuñez, who was also a native of the Dominican Republic, told the family that he believed he had been attacked because he was gay, Mr. Moreno said. In keeping with Ms. Moreno’s views on hospitality, the family welcomed him to stay temporarily.
The police did not say what the nature of the dispute was or how long it had lasted. The day before he moved to East Elmhurst, Mr. Nuñez had been arrested in the Bronx, where he had been living, for filing a false police report, court records show. A law enforcement official familiar with the case said that Mr. Nuñez had falsely claimed to have been sexually assaulted. Mr. Nuñez’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.
The police said that Mr. Rodriguez was a tenant in the home. His daughter, Ms. Rodriguez, was visiting from the Dominican Republic with her children. She was expected to survive, but her 10-month-old son was in extremely critical condition, the police said. When Ms. Moreno and her family asked their circle of acquaintances about Mr. Nuñez, they learned he may have had mental health issues. In his short time at the house, Mr. Nuñez behaved erratically, they said.
“It’s a sad afternoon here in East Elmhurst,” Daniel A. Nigro, the city’s fire commissioner, said on Wednesday, standing in front of the burned out building. “I told my mom, ‘Mami, there’s something weird here,’” another of Ms. Moreno’s sons, Anthony Moreno, said.
The Fire Department said it received a call at 4:09 p.m. that a fire was raging at the home. The call came from a person living on the first floor of the building, who said a smoke alarm was going off upstairs. Concerned over Mr. Nuñez’s behavior, Ms. Moreno asked him to leave, officials said. “He lost his head,” Ms. Moreno’s husband, Raul Moreno, said. “That was the result.”
Firefighters arrived four minutes later and carried the two men and the girl from the still-burning home but were unable to save them, according to fire officials. The woman and boy had already gotten out, but were badly injured. A person living on the first floor of the building called the Fire Department at 4:09 p.m. on Wednesday and reported a smoke alarm was going off upstairs, officials said.
One victim was pronounced dead on the scene. The four others were transported to the Elmhurst Hospital Center and the NewYork-Presbyterian Queens hospital, where two later died. By the time firefighters arrived a few minutes later, the second floor was engulfed in flames. Ms. Rodriguez and Lian had made it out, but were badly burned. The others were still inside the home and did not survive.
The blaze was so intense and the outside temperatures so high that more than 100 firefighters from 25 units were required to put it out, fire officials said. That afternoon, Ms. Rodriguez had opted to stay home with the children and their grandfather so the little girl could splash around in an inflatable pool that the family had purchased shortly after she arrived, family members said.
“A hot humid day like this, you want to keep the firefighters fresh and rotate them in on a quicker turnaround as they operate,” Jim Long, a department spokesman, said. The Rodriguez family had arrived in Queens at the beginning of July and had been planning to stay in the United States until the middle of August, they said.
On Wednesday evening, fire marshals dug through the second-floor rubble as neighbors stood behind a caution tape and watched. It was a trip that Mr. Rodriguez, a retired police officer in the Dominican Republic, made every year, his family said. “Every time he came to New York, he would explore a new place,” Mr. Moreno said.
Mr. Nigro said the circumstances of the fire were puzzling. Mr. Rodriguez, who liked drinking whiskey and playing dominoes to relax, would wake up early every morning around 4 a.m., sometimes going grocery shopping for the family. He also helped his daughter care for her infant son and tried to protect the baby even in his last moments.
“It’s quite unusual at that time in the afternoon to have a fire trap five occupants in a private dwelling,” Mr. Nigro said. “Without an obvious accidental cause, the department treats it as a suspicious fire.” “He could have stayed in the Dominican Republic,” Mr. Moreno said. “But he came here to take care of the baby, and he died for the baby.”
The ravaged interior of the home could be seen from the street, whose traffic was cut off by a number of fire trucks. The trip was a special one for Ema, a playful and charismatic child whom Rafelina Moreno doted on like a daughter, family members said.
Willie C. Martin Jr., 82, who has lived on the street since 1985, said the firefighters were unable to push through the front door of the house and instead broke open the second-floor window with a ladder. “That’s when I saw the flames,” he said. Though Ema had turned 6 years old in May, the family had planned to throw her a special birthday bash on Saturday. The party was to be a “Frozen” themed barbecue. The neighbors had been invited, the cake had been ordered and everything was ready to go.
Firefighters then pulled out two men, and for a short time tried to revive them with CPR on the front lawn. Mr. Martin said he did not see the 6-year-old girl. “It all seemed like a blur,” he said. Instead of a jubilant celebration, her family, reeling with heartbreak and shock, is raising money for a funeral.
Mr. Martin, a retired social worker, said that he knew occupants of the apartment informally, and believed they belonged to one family. “She was a living angel,” Anthony Moreno said. “And now she’s a real angel.”
“Living in a city, we all have that innate terror inside of us that we don’t know until it happens,” said Mr. Martin, as he sat on his stoop, eyeing the fire marshals entering and leaving the home. “This is when that comes to the forefront.” Ashley Southall and Ali Watkins contributed reporting.
Andrea Salcedo, Ashley Southall and Ali Watkins contributed reporting.