{"id":191383,"date":"2026-04-09T21:29:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T21:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191383\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T21:29:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T21:29:30","slug":"job-firing-fueled-queens-blaze-that-killed-4-including-child-da","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191383\/","title":{"rendered":"Job firing fueled Queens blaze that killed 4, including child: DA"},"content":{"rendered":"

FLUSHING, Queens (PIX11) \u2014 A fired worker, overcome with rage, is accused of sparking the deadly Queens fire<\/a> that killed four people, including a 3-year-old child, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Roman Amatitla<\/a>, 38, told investigators he was angry about losing his food processing job when he allegedly torched a multi-floor Flushing building on March 16, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was really pandemonium. What led up to the fire is really quite disturbing,\u201d Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Thursday after the suspect\u2019s arraignment.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Amatitla allegedly got a beer and some matches from a nearby gas station and lit a piece of paper on fire on top of the garbage in the first-floor hallway at 132-05 Avery Ave. and watched it burn as he drank some beers.<\/p>\n

Katz called it \u201cone of the greatest crimes this borough has seen in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\"Roman<\/p>\n

Roman Amatitla, 38, appears in Queens Criminal Court for allegedly setting a deadly fire in Flushing on March 16, 2026. (Credit: POOL PHOTS\/NY DAILY NEWS)<\/p>\n

Five people jumped from different windows to escape the four-alarm blaze. Three-year-old Sihan Yang, Chie Shin Ming, and Chengri Cui, 50, were found dead after firefighters extinguished the flames, authorities said. They died of smoke inhalation.<\/p>\n

Hong Zhao died of head and bodily injuries after jumping out of the window.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so traumatic and so painful that he jumped out the window and died from his fractures,\u201d Katz said.<\/p>\n

The other victims who leapt to safety were hospitalized with serious injuries, including broken ribs, a traumatic brain injury, and severe burns, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

An FDNY lieutenant and a firefighter were also injured when a stairwell collapsed, sending them plunging into the basement.<\/p>\n

Amatitla had no connection to the victims, but he told investigators he knew he was going to harm people.<\/p>\n

The alleged firebug had gotten into a fight at work before he was fired from his job and was looking for a way to relieve his anger, authorities said.<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

Firefighters respond to a blaze in Flushing, Queens on Monday, March 16, 2026. (Credit: FDNY)<\/p>\n

The Queens resident was charged with multiple counts of murder, arson, and assault. He pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.<\/p>\n

\u201cA charge is not a conviction. We intend to vigorously represent him,\u201d the defendant\u2019s lawyer, Vivian Cede\u00f1o, said.<\/p>\n

Mira Wassef is an award-winning reporter who has covered news and sports in the NYC area for more than a decade. She joined the PIX11 News digital team in 2022. See more of her 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":"FLUSHING, Queens (PIX11) \u2014 A fired worker, overcome with rage, is accused of sparking the deadly Queens fire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[648,76606,3064,9,24,63,122,5192,124,123,76320],"class_list":{"0":"post-191383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-flushing","9":"tag-food-processing","10":"tag-melinda-katz","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-queens","15":"tag-queens-criminal-court","16":"tag-queens-headlines","17":"tag-queens-news","18":"tag-roman-amatitla"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191383","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=191383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}