Earlier today, a house in Elmhurst, N.Y., was engulfed in flames. The blaze took an hour to extinguish and damaged the neighboring house. Nine people were injured and at least one is in critical condition, reported the New York Daily News. This is the eighth severe fire in Queens County that has occurred under suspicious circumstances since October, and the police are searching for the arsonist responsible. Most of the fires have been in the Forest Hills area of Queens.
Due to the similar circumstances of the first seven fires, the police believe these crimes have been the work of a serial arsonist. The Forest Hills fires all happened on properties with homes under renovation or construction, and all the homes were owned by Jewish people, reported CBS. Though the string of fires is not being treated as a hate crime, the police are still investigating.
One person of interest, a man pictured on a motorcycle leaving the area of one of the fires, was questioned by police and is no longer a suspect for the crime as detectives determined that he was just a passerby, reported ABC. Another man was caught on tape at the scene of the Nov. 25 fire, and the NYPD have released the video on Twitter to try and identify the man.
This man is wanted in connection with several Arsons that occurred within the #112pct Do you recognize him? pic.twitter.com/umt5Yh8TXt
— NYPD 112th Precinct (@NYPD112Pct) December 3, 2015
The fires have all had extremely dense flames that completely destroyed the targeted sites. This morning's Elmhurst fire left one woman with severe burns to her head and abdomen and a 12-year-old girl had to be treated for smoke inhalation, reported Pix11 News. Three firemen sustained mild injuries.
The police investigating the string of fires have seen a pattern emerge. The arsonist enters a construction site, ignites flammable materials and then flees on foot. NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said that it was strange they found no accelerant on any of the sites, and that this gives them further cause to believe the incidents are linked, reported the NYSE Post. The search for the criminal is currently underway. A video posted to Twitter by Jonathan Ubaybov shows the magnitude of the flames of one of the borough's fires.
Forest Hills fire again... pic.twitter.com/0EzH76Wjsn — Jonathan Ubaydov (@JUbaydov) December 6, 2015
