A New York City family with six children escaped a burning building that was allegedly set on fire by their landlord over unpaid rent, fire officials announced Friday.
Rafiqul Islam, 66, was taken into custody on Oct. 25, accused of arson at his own Brooklyn building, where the family of eight were tenants, on Sept. 26. Officials said he was upset that the family had stopped paying rent and had refused to move out.
According to the New York City Fire Department, the fire victims told investigators that Islam had threatened to cut off gas and electric service and burn the house down if the family, which lived on the second floor, did not come up with the rent.
Investigators conducted a four-week investigation in which video evidence from the day of the fire appeared to show Islam, dressed in a mask and hood, entering and leaving the home shortly before the first 911 call. Investigators reported that they eventually found an image in which the mask and hood were down.
Fire officials said the fire was ignited on an interior staircase of the building.
Witnesses told CBS New York in September that the parents threw their children out from the burning building and good Samaritans caught them. Everyone in the family escaped uninjured, according to WINS-FM.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office is pursuing several criminal charges, including eight counts of attempted murder, assault and arson, according to the NYFD.
According to court records reviewed by People magazine, Islam filed a civil suit a day after the fire against an occupant on the second floor of the address, claiming she owed him $26,592. A counterclaim was filed a month later by the occupant claiming that she and her family were “driven from the subject premises by a fire,” according to People.
According to People, the counterclaim also alleged several conditions that had made the unit inhabitable, including an infestation of mice and roaches as well as water damage and the presence of lead paint.