Detectives from the 109th Precinct in Flushing are searching for an arsonist who is suspected of starting a two-alarm blaze at a Parsons Boulevard apartment building early Wednesday morning, Jan. 12, which they described as a drug deal gone bad, according to the NYPD.
Investigators believe the suspect climbed the fire escape of the residential building at 34-15 Parsons Blvd. just before 5 a.m. and allegedly threw a molotov cocktail through the window of a sixth-floor apartment, igniting the blaze that spread to a seventh-floor unit, investigators said.
Firefighters arrived on the scene and fire suppression units encountered heavy fire blowing out the windows on the sixth and then the seventh floors while battling temperatures in the low teens. The incident went to a second alarm soon afterward, according to the FDNY.
Fire units used two hose lines to knock down the main body of fire and brought it under control at 5:50 a.m. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries and were transported to an area hospital, officials said.
The alleged arsonists fled the scene to parts unknown, police said, and an investigation by the NYPD and FDNY fire marshals is ongoing.
