Monsey man charged in arson

Monsey man charged in arson; 2 tots, their mom escape
By STEVE LIEBERMAN
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THE JOURNAL NEWS
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(Original publication: December 8, 2005)


MONSEY — Ramapo police charged a 38-year-old man yesterday with setting fire to his bathroom inside a Brewer Road house where a mother and two young children were living in another apartment.

Mayer Blumenfeld is accused of using wooden matches to set fire to the plastic drapery and the walls in his bathroom, Ramapo police and the Monsey fire chief said yesterday.

After a short delay in being called, the Monsey Fire Department contained the fire to the bathroom.

No one was injured.

An investigation determined the fire had been deliberately set and Blumenfeld had been seen leaving the house when the fire was first seen around 1 p.m. Tuesday, Ramapo Detective Sgt. John Lynch said.

Police arrested Blumenfeld at 2 a.m. yesterday, near the two-story, wood-frame house, Lynch said.

Blumenfeld was charged with second-degree arson, a felony. He was being held in the county jail on $25,000 bail set by Ramapo Justice Rhoda Schoenberger.

The fire caused up to $500 worth of damage to the apartment, Lynch said.

The house where the fire occurred had been divided into apartments on the upper floor and the lower floor.

A couple with a 20-month-old boy and a 2-month-old girl lived in the upper-floor apartment. Blumenfeld lived in the other apartment.

The mother and her two children were home when the fire started, Lynch said.

Monsey Fire Chief Andrew Schlissel said yesterday that the mother first reported the fire to the Hatzolah Ambulance Corps, which covers Monsey and other Orthodox Jewish communities in Ramapo.

"The other tenant noticed smoke coming from under the door of the man's apartment," Schlissel said. "She called Hatzolah. She did not notify the fire department, and Hatzolah didn't immediately notify us. There was a delay in response because of that."

Fire departments are usually the first-responders to fires.

After the Monsey Fire Department was told about the fire at 1:07 p.m., Schlissel said, 12 volunteers went to the house with three trucks. The volunteers extinguished the bathroom fire, which didn't spread to any other parts of the house, he said.

The fire was investigated by the town fire inspector and police and the sheriff's Bureau of Criminal Investigation arson unit.

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