The New York Police Department is intensifying efforts to find a man caught on surveillance footage starting a fire outside a Bronx apartment building. The unsettling incident, which took place on Rochambeau Avenue in the Norwood section of The Bronx, involved the suspect pouring gasoline and igniting it along a sidewalk, resulting in a sudden blaze, ABC 7 reports.
Security cameras recorded the suspect as he approached the building pushing a cart and placed a red bag next to the structure. "I saw the black spot," Katrina Curanaj, the building's owner, told ABC 7. "I rewound the camera. I saw flames. I panicked. My heart came out of my chest. I was like, 'what's going on?'"
Soon after the fire was set, it was extinguished by two individuals who emerged from a passing car, stomped out the flames, and left the scene without contacting emergency services. The tenants of the building were asleep during the incident and remained unaware until the burn marks were discovered the next day. Curanaj has expressed her anxiety over the situation, fearing for the safety of her tenants. "I'm not going to sleep tonight because how about if I walk out my building or one of my tenants walk out the building and this guy comes back?" she expressed in an interview with ABC 7.
Investigators from the FDNY have also been informed of the incident, as concern grows with a potential arsonist at large. A bottle containing what appears to be regular rubbing alcohol was recovered from the red bag left behind by the suspect, according to reports by New York Post. The NYPD continues to urge anyone with information to come forward as their search for the suspect persists.
