Fire officials believe that a two-alarm fire that left a teenager dead and many others injured was caused by arson. The Post reports, "Investigators found a large red gasoline canister at 55 Harrison Place," which is on the Williamsburg-Bushwick border, and the NY Times says, "A surveillance video showed a man entering the three-story building shortly before the fire began, and the man was shown leaving as the flames began to erupt."
Sofia Olivo, 17, was killed in the fire; she had been sleeping over at her friend Martha Quinones's home. Apparently, when the 4:20 a.m. fire broke out, Quinones told Olivo to jump but a friend says, "Sofia said, 'No, I'm taking the fire escape. I'll meet you on the other side.' She didn't make it back." A neighbor on the same floor said, "It was either jump or burn... I smelled smoke and it was getting hot. I opened my door and there were flames everywhere. I heard screams coming from their apartment."
Quinones survived, but broke her ankle in the jump; she later called Olivo's father Antonio with the terrible news. The Times reports, "Her first words were, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ ” he said. “ ‘We can’t find Sofia.’... She was 17. She just wanted to live, that’s all. She loved to live."
The house was in poor condition—the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development had taken over the house in 2004 (foreclosure) and had been trying to evict tenants since 2005 to renovate the building, but the tenants refused (Times: "the department’s contractors, including a building supervisor and an architect who was trying to develop repair plans, had been rebuffed repeatedly by tenants who would not allow them to enter their units"). A neighbor lamented to the Daily News, "Now look, it takes a tragedy like this for it to finally get shut down."
