Posted on 09/17/2018 8:47:18 PM PDT by EinNYC
More than 100 cars burst into flames at a Brooklyn shopping plaza early Monday, and cops have arrested the man they believe started the blaze — a furious firebug who sources say had revenge on his mind.
The roaring inferno sent huge plumes of smoke into the sky and injured 22 firefighters and six civilians.
Police arrested Avon Stephens, 23, Monday night and charged him with arson. Sources said he made statements admitting to starting the blaze.
A police source said the suspect periodically slept at the garage and had been repeatedly shooed away by mall security.
Cops believe Stephens — caught on surveillance footage near the conflagration — might have been angry after getting kicked out of his favorite snoozing spot, the sources said.
“Outstanding job by #NYPD Strategic Response Group Officers Domarecki & Reiff with the apprehension of an individual wanted for questioning in regards to today’s 7 alarm fire in the Kings Plaza Mall parking garage,” the NYPD Special Operations Bureau announced on its Twitter account Monday night.
The seven-alarm blaze broke out about 8:25 a.m. on the second level of the parking garage at Kings Plaza in Mill Basin.
Up to 120 cars were ignited by the fire, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. The cars were being stored there by a local Mercedes Benz dealership.
It took more more than 250 firefighters just over two hours to bring the fast-moving fire under control. The blaze was so large it forced the mall to close for the day.
“We don’t know yet what started the fire,” said Commissioner Nigro. “It created a huge amount of black smoke, there was a large amount of fire confronting our people.”
He said the flames were confined to the second-level of the garage — but there might have been additional damage to the structure itself.
“Our members are conducting an examination ... it’s certainly stable right now,” Nigro said. “If we have to go further, we’ll bring in engineers from the Department of Buildings.”
One passerby said she heard a series of blasts from inside the burning garage. “I’m right by Kings Plaza and it’s literally on fire,” a Twitter user named Kells wrote. “I hear explosions and stuff it’s insane.”
The large popping noises people heard during the blaze was likely tires exploding, Nigro said.
Of the 28 total victims hurt in the fire, a few were hospitalized and the rest treated at the scene.
The heavy humidity created a suffocating atmosphere for the firefighters, according to the FDNY.
Although the sides of the parking garage were open, the acrid haze didn’t ventilate well — and several firefighters suffered from smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion, Nigro said.
A security camera at the parking garage caught the main suspect leaving the scene shortly before the fire erupted. Cops released his photos Monday afternoon. The man was described as black, last seen in a white shirt, dark pants and dark-colored shoes.
Detectives had initially suspected a disgruntled car washer for the dealership started the blaze intentionally.
But they later zeroed in on the man seen in the security footage.
Mace Rich, a company which owns the mall, could not be reached for comment.
The Mercedes-Benz dealership was not the only car company that stored vehicles in the mall.
A manager at Brooklyn Chrysler just a few blocks away from the burning parking garage said his business also used the facility to hold vehicles. “We have 600 hundred cars stored there,” said the worker, who asked to remain anonymous.
“We haven’t been able to get to them. We don’t know what we lost,” he said, adding that the Brooklyn Chrysler cars were held on the structure’s upper levels.
That’s how much damage one deranged person can do. Think about what a hundred or two hundred or 500 antifa/progressive types could do.
If you live or work in an urban area, you are vulnerable to urban uprising, disorder and chaos.
My advice is to get out as soon as you can. Rent, rather than buy. And know if there is minority rioting and you are forced into a defensive shooting - you will not get a fair trial in a “progressive” controlled area.
Better to just stay away.
That would be 60,000 cars. That's a helluva lot of cars to store!
Reminds me of the homeless guys starting a fire under a freeway bridge and burning down part of Bel Air last year.
"THIS IS AMERICA..."
he won’t get any sleep for the first few weeks, that’s the honeymoon period with his new husband.
the liberal activists of the 60s and 70s were certifiably crazy and taking psychotropics for fun and mind control.
their rantings (like “Sexual Politics”) are taught in schools today. Saline needs to be used to wash away the infections of our society instead of re-applying the caustic agents annually.
“We don’t know yet what started the fire,”
It was always burning, since the worlds been turning?
Avon Stevens, perp.
Locked state mental institutions and also homes for the mentally retarded would go far in protecting them, and society as a whole.
And a lot less expensively than the current provisions that don’t work.
How about instead recognizing that the problems that cause so many dysfunctional people have to be addressed or what's left of civilization might go down in flames.
120 cars belonging to a Mercedes dealr?
Insurance.
burn him...
“Just one brain addled piece of ghetto garbage did all this.”
Still better than the “dregs of society” who support Trump. Right Joe?
Wow, how do you fight fires that hot in an enclosed place?
Hillary voter
burn him...
The issue is those people who cannot function in society, they get kicked out of every apartment they live in, they don’t qualify for public hosing because they are drug addicts, they are in jail multiple times per year etc. They also refuse to hold down a job or use any government assistance for its intended purpose. They live to get high and cause trouble. What do you do with a person who cannot even maintain a studio apartment and prepare meals for themselves?
The only possible answer is that as a civilization we have to go “back to the future”. I taught in a small town that kept its rural, isolated character until the early 1980s. Until the state and the feds started taking over programs, the town took care of its own. Until things get more local and everyone feels like they’re part of a community, the problems can only get worse. When it all comes tumblin’ down (and it will) it’s those places that have skills and identity to be self-sufficient that will survive.
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