{"id":228787,"date":"2026-05-12T17:31:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/228787\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T17:31:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:31:37","slug":"nyc-man-accused-of-setting-triple-fatal-fire-in-inwood-with-discarded-cigarette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/228787\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC man accused of setting triple fatal fire in Inwood with discarded cigarette"},"content":{"rendered":"

INWOOD, Manhattan (WABC) — The man police say caused a deadly fire in Inwood earlier this month<\/a> made his initial court appearance on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Officials say 29-year-old Victor Arias intentionally started the blaze that took the lives of three people and injured more than a dozen others.<\/p>\n

Arias was arrested Monday on charges of criminally negligent homicide.<\/p>\n

Five people were left in critical condition after the fire, including several children.<\/p>\n

It broke out on the first floor of the six-story residential building around 12:30 in the morning last Monday.<\/p>\n

Dozens of residents were trapped on fire escapes when firefighters arrived.<\/p>\n

FDNY investigators say the suspect deliberately discarded a lit cigarette into cardboard boxes, causing them to ignite.<\/p>\n

That fire then quickly spread through the common hallway and then a stairway of the building, rocketing up through the roof.<\/p>\n

Arias was released following the appearance but he cannot travel outside of New York City.<\/p>\n

Officials say he lived in the building with his mother and sister and had lived the same apartment his entire life. He has no arrest history.<\/p>\n

His next court date is set for June 5.<\/p>\n

———-<\/p>\n

* Get Eyewitness News Delivered<\/a> <\/p>\n

* More Manhattan news<\/a><\/p>\n

* Send us a news tip<\/a><\/p>\n

* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts on the go<\/a> <\/p>\n

* Download our connected TV app<\/a> <\/p>\n


Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News<\/p>\n

Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.<\/a><\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INWOOD, Manhattan (WABC) — The man police say caused a deadly fire in Inwood earlier this month made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[89880,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-228787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-89880","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228787","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=228787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}