{"id":214777,"date":"2026-04-29T23:23:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T23:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/214777\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T23:23:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T23:23:55","slug":"contractor-facing-charges-in-connection-to-multi-home-fire-in-queens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/214777\/","title":{"rendered":"Contractor facing charges in connection to multi-home fire in Queens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A contractor is facing charges after a fire ripped through four homes in Astoria, Queens, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The blaze started at around 11 a.m. at a home on 42nd Street. Neighbors say it was unoccupied and a renovation was underway.<\/p>\n<p>Workers were allegedly using a torch on the roof when something went terribly wrong. Fire officials said the flames quickly spread to three adjoining homes.<\/p>\n<p>The residents who were inside at the time were able to escape with their pets. Thankfully, no one was hurt.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/setup-6p-vo-astoria-fir-wcbshnow-hi-res-still.jpg#.jpeg\" alt=\"Fire in window of Queens home \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  A contractor is facing charges after a fire ripped through four homes in Astoria, Queens, on April 29, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>                CBS News New York<\/p>\n<p>All four homes now have a full vacate order on them. The Red Cross is helping at least 17 people.<\/p>\n<p>Police said Spring Valley resident Luis Wilfrido Simban, 29, was arrested at the scene and has been charged with reckless endangerment for using a propane torch on a combustible roof.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;There was some possible, some illegal construction work going on in the building. That&#8217;s under investigation at this time,&#8221; FDNY Deputy Chief Jeffrey Meister said. &#8220;So if they were doing torch work on the roof of the building, just be mindful that it is a wood-framed building, and you&#8217;re not supposed to be using a torch on a wood-frame building.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Simban was given a desk appearance ticket.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A contractor is facing charges after a fire ripped through four homes in Astoria, Queens, on Wednesday. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[3814,1978,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-214777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-astoria","tag-house-fire","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214777","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=214777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}