NY1.com

  46º

You are not signed in  |  Sign in here  |  Help

You're viewing a lite version of NY1.com

Time Warner Cable customers: Sign in with your TWC ID for video access.

Get my TWC ID. | Get TWC service. | Read the FAQ.

Updated 02/13/2010 12:57 AM

DOB: Site Of Fatal Brooklyn Fire Had Illegal Apartments

By: NY1 News

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri said Friday that the Brooklyn building that was the site of last month's deadly fire had illegal subdivisions that should never have been built.

An investigation found the third floor of the Bensonhurst apartment, had a two-bedroom unit that had been converted into four separate residential units.

The building owner was issued three violations.

DOB: Site Of Fatal Brooklyn Fire Had Illegal Apartments
Five people were killed, including Luisa Ordoñez de Chan, right, a Guatemalan immigrant who died after throwing her two young children to safety.

Daniel Ignacio, 27, a resident of the building, was arrested and charged with murder and arson.

Police sources say Ignacio told authorities he was drunk when he doused a roll of toilet paper with paint thinner, lit it on fire and threw it into a baby carriage near the building's front entrance.

He later helped a two-year-old boy escape the fire.