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BENSONHURST: Bensonhurst burner convicted

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See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.

By Will Bredderman

Brooklyn Daily

A Brooklyn jury handed down a searing judgment on the man who set fire to an 86th Street tenement in 2010.

District Attorney Charles Hynes announced the conviction of Daniel Ignacio for torching the tenement where he lived between 20th and 21st avenues — a blaze that sent the lives of five people up in smoke.

Ignacio — who confessed to committing the crime while under the influence of alcohol and “demons” — set fire to a paint-thinner soaked roll of toilet paper and left it in baby carriage in the doorway of the building on Jan. 30, 2010, before heading upstairs and falling asleep. Ignacio allegedly later helped save a young boy from the very inferno he started, but five of his fellow recent Guatemalan immigrants were not so lucky.

Ignacio was found guilty of five counts murder in the second degree, one count of arson in the fourth degree, one count of assault in the first degree, and nine counts of assault in the second degree. He faces 25 years to life in prison when he’s sentenced on April 4.

City inspectors found weeks after the blaze that landlords Vasilios and Argyrios Gerazounis had illegally divided the building into tiny rooms and had not provided adequate escape routes. The father and son are due in court on March 22 to face charges of manslaughter in the second degree, criminally negligent homicide, perjury in the first degree, perjury in the third degree, reckless endangerment in the first degree, and assault in the first degree. They each face a potential 25-year sentence.

Reach reporter Will Bredderman at wbredderman@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4507. Follow him at twitter.com/WillBredderman.

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