A 56-year-old New Brunswick man is facing a stack of serious charges after surveillance video allegedly caught him carrying a container up an apartment staircase in Somerset just minutes before flames broke out, a fire that displaced 15 residents and killed a dog and a cat. Perfecto Quintana, also known as Perfecto Quintana Montes, was arrested Friday and charged with aggravated arson, residential burglary, criminal mischief, criminal contempt and two counts of animal cruelty.
According to Daily Voice, Somerset County Prosecutor John P. McDonald said investigators reviewed surveillance footage showing Quintana walking toward the multi-unit building on Home Street before the fire, then returning down the staircase minutes later carrying what appeared to be the same container, now empty. A report by RLS Media says Quintana then drove away within minutes, just before Franklin Township police began fielding calls about an active fire at the property around 3:45 p.m. on Friday.
People in the area reportedly spotted Quintana driving nearby and alerted police, who stopped him shortly afterward. Officers noted signs of intoxication, per police. He was subsequently lodged in the Somerset County Jail to await a court hearing.
Fifteen Residents Scattered, Two Pets Lost
The one-alarm blaze damaged the building and displaced three families — 11 adults and four juveniles, totaling 15 people — though no injuries were reported among residents. A dog and a cat inside the building did not survive. Area fire departments, including crews from the volunteer East Franklin Fire Department, which operates out of Pine Grove Avenue and covers a 4.75-square-mile district bordering New Brunswick, worked to extinguish the fire, according to the East Franklin Fire Department.
The American Red Cross stepped in to assist the three displaced families with temporary shelter. The scale of that kind of need is not unusual in New Jersey — the organization's New Jersey Region reported providing emergency financial aid, temporary shelter and disaster mental health support to 765 individuals across 280 families affected by home fires statewide in a single month in late 2025, according to the American Red Cross.
Charges Carry Mandatory Prison Time
Under New Jersey's aggravated arson statute, N.J.S.A. 2C:17-1, the charge is classified as a second-degree crime that applies when a fire purposely or knowingly endangers human life or targets a residential structure. A conviction carries a mandatory prison sentence of five to 10 years and fines of up to $150,000, with no chance at early parole under the No Early Release Act, which requires defendants to serve 85 percent of their term, according to Raff and Raff.
New Jersey law provides for criminal contempt in cases involving violations of temporary or final restraining orders. Under N.J.S.A. 2C:29-9, a purposeful or knowing violation of a domestic-violence restraining order or substantially similar order is an indictable fourth-degree crime when the violating conduct also constitutes a crime or disorderly persons offense, per the Law Offices of Jonathan F. Marshall. The two animal cruelty counts stem from New Jersey's statute penalizing the needless killing or injury of animals, which becomes an indictable criminal offense when the conduct results in an animal's death, according to the ASK Law Firm.
What Happens Next in Court
Quintana is currently held at the Somerset County Jail pending a court hearing. Whether he remains there or is eventually moved elsewhere depends on how the county's custody arrangements play out — Somerset County entered a five-year agreement with Morris County effective June 1, 2024, to house longer-term inmates, leaving its own jail to function mainly as a short-term holding facility for detainees awaiting court appearances, according to the Somerset County Sheriff's Office.
New Jersey eliminated cash bail in 2017.
The Home Street fire came more than a year after a chemical-reaction manufacturing plant fire at 37 Veronica Avenue on June 24, 2025. The exact relationship between Quintana and the building's occupants has not been detailed publicly, and it remains unclear whether investigators have positively identified an accelerant inside the container seen in the surveillance footage.
