A firebug with 15 previous arrests was busted for allegedly hurling a Molotov cocktail that set a Brooklyn business ablaze Sunday – leaving one firefighter injured, authorities and sources said.
Isidro Aquino, 39, allegedly sparked the massive fire around 1:45 p.m. inside a building on Fort Hamilton Parkway near 53rd Street in Borough Park, police said.
He fled the scene, allowing the flames to ravage a clothing store, with smoke also billowing from a next-door e-bike factory – where firefighters initially thought the three-alarm inferno began, according to sources and the FDNY.
Aquino was arrested at the fire scene after hospital release; his record includes 15 prior busts. Sergii Figurnyi – stock.adobe.com “They had heavy smoke pushing out from the doorways,” FDNY Assistant Chief Michael Meyers told reporters.
“It wound up not being there [but] in the commercial occupancy next door,” Meyers said. “It wound up being large amounts of stock that were on fire. Fire began to burn through that stock, burn up through the floor, and the fire eventually extended up through the building and through the roof.”
A total of 92 fire and EMS units responded – drawing a total of 200 personnel to the scene, officials said.
One firefighter was hospitalized for minor injuries, but luckily no civilians were hurt, officials said.
“Anytime we can wind up with no firefighters hurt and nobody injured inside the occupancy except for some minor injuries… we take that as a win,” Meyers said.
Aquino was later picked up by EMS workers for public intoxication, and was taken to a local hospital which he left on his own, the sources said.
Once released, he brazenly returned to the fire scene, where fire marshals arrested him around 11 p.m., according to the sources.
The Borough Park fire injured one firefighter; it ravaged a clothing store, not the e-bike factory. burnstuff2003 – stock.adobe.com Aquino was charged with arson as well as burglary for entering the building without permission, intending to commit a crime, cops said.
He is accused of entering through a rear door and rummaging through a cardboard box, police said.
His motive for allegedly setting the fire was not immediately known.
He was last arrested on April 28, 2017 for allegedly punching a 31-year-old man – a stranger – inside Sunset Park at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street and stealing his jacket, cops said.
Aquino’s record also includes busts for criminal trespass, robbery, criminal possession of a weapon, drug possession and theft of service dating back to 2011, police said.
His arraignment on the new case was pending Monday evening.
