A man from the Bronx has been charged with murder in connection to a tragic fire that claimed the lives of three individuals, including the elderly building owner whose family had resided there for many years. This information comes from police reports and statements from the victim’s family.
Daniel Santana, aged 45, faces charges of murder, arson, and manslaughter related to the blaze that broke out early on May 6. The fire engulfed an apartment building with a deli on the ground floor, located on Third Avenue near East 149th Street in Mott Haven. Among the deceased was 70-year-old Oreste De Leon, according to police accounts.
In his final moments, De Leon attempted to rescue another resident from the building, only identified as Chino. Unfortunately, both perished in the fire, as recounted by tenant Sharon Horton to The New York Times.
Authorities discovered the body of a third victim, whose identity has yet to be confirmed, from the debris later in the week.
Reports from the neighborhood describe Santana as having recently roamed the area in a seemingly intoxicated state, playing loud music. He allegedly used a container of accelerant to start the fire, according to The New York Times.
The motive behind Santana’s actions remains unclear, and it is not known if he had any connection to the victims.
He was ordered held without bail during his Wednesday arraignment, and will reappear in court on Friday, prosecutors said.
Meanwhile, neighbors told The Times that De Leon never judged the residents of the building, many of them drug users with nowhere else to go.
“We all looked at each like brothers and sisters, like family,” Mecca Daniels, 51, told the paper. “And Ori was our pop-pop.”
DeLeon’s great-niece Salina Rivera launched a GoFundMe page seeking financial support after the massive fire decimated “the building that had been in our family for OVER three generations.”
“Our family is left grieving the sudden loss of our family member. Losing him in such a tragic and violent way has left our family heartbroken and overwhelmed,” she wrote.
“This was not just a property — it was my grandmother’s childhood home, her late mother’s home, and a place filled with decades of memories, and history,” Rivera continued. “It also housed the deli she rented out, which used to be my great grandmother’s and was recently renovated.”
The conflagration drew more than 140 first responders to the scene, officials said.
Three firefighters suffered minor injuries.
After the fire, a full vacate order was issued on the crumbling building – more than a year after the FDNY ordered a structural inspection because of deteriorating steps leading to the second floor, and sloping ceilings with exposed wires, according to Department of Buildings records.
