{"id":190285,"date":"2026-04-09T00:19:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T00:19:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/190285\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T00:19:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T00:19:34","slug":"man-accused-of-starting-queens-fire-that-killed-four-including-child-nypd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/190285\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of starting Queens fire that killed four, including child: NYPD"},"content":{"rendered":"

QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) \u2014 A man has been accused of murder after a four-alarm fire ripped through a Flushing building<\/a> last month and killed four people, including a child.<\/p>\n

Roman Amatitla, 38, was charged with murder, assault, arson and petit larceny in connection with the fatal fire on March 16<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More Local News <\/a><\/p>\n

The blaze engulfed a three-story mixed-use building at 44-49 College Point Blvd. just after noon, forcing people to jump from their upper-floor apartments, according to the FDNY.<\/p>\n

In total, there were nine victims, including the four who died, police said. The child killed was just three years old. Her name was Sihan Yang. A 50-year-old man, Chengri Cui, was identified later on as well.<\/p>\n

The identities of the other two victims, a 61-year-old woman and a 63-year-old man, have not yet been released by authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever experienced anything like this. You\u2019ve only see it on television, just seeing it made me cry a lot. It\u2019s really, really devastating,\u201d a witness of the fire told PIX11 News.<\/p>\n

Get ongoing crime and safety coverage on our homepage <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a difficult and tragic day. There were several victims of this fire,\u201d FDNY Commissioner Lillian\u00a0Bonsignore said at the scene on March 16.<\/p>\n

Weeks after the fire, the Chief Medical Examiner\u2019s Office declared the deaths homicides.<\/p>\n

Amatitla was arrested and charged Wednesday afternoon. He is expected to be arraigned in court on Thursday, according to the Queens District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Spencer Gustafson is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered New York state and city news since 2023. See more of his work here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) \u2014 A man has been accused of murder after a four-alarm fire ripped through a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[76252,7404,9,24,63,70341,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-190285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-child-killed","tag-fatal-fire","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-petit-larceny","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}