FOLLOW-UP TO "MAN DIES IN FIRE AT 36TH STREET BY CHURCH AVENUE"

From The Wall Street Journal:

JULY 14, 2010
Fire in Van Used as Shelter Kills Homeless Man
By JESSICA FIRGER And TAMER EL-GHOBASHY

A van that served as shelter for two men in Brooklyn caught fire early Tuesday, killing one and critically injuring the other, police and fire officials said.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly described the victims as either "homeless or itinerant workers." Business owners in the Borough Park neighborhood said day laborers often spend nights in abandoned cars in the area.

The fire broke out just before 2 a.m. inside a Chevrolet van parked in a lot housing yellow school buses on 36th Street near 12th Avenue, police said.

According to police officials, officers saw the vehicle ablaze and moments later observed a man kicking out the driver's side window to escape the flames. He was taken to Maimonides Medical Center by ambulance and was listed in critical but stable condition, police said.

Firefighters extinguished the fire almost immediately after arriving and soon discovered a second man trapped in the van. He was pronounced dead at the scene, fire officials said.

Mr. Kelly said the van did not have license plates. Fire officials said the cause of the blaze was being investigated and it did not appear to be intentionally set.

The medical examiner was conducting an autopsy on the dead victim, a spokeswoman said.

The identities of both men were not immediately available, police said, but friends gathered at the scene identified the dead man as Danny Torres, a homeless man who they said grew up in Kensington and lived on the street because of a difficult relationship with his mother.

"He preferred to sleep outside," said Moses Rodriguez, 44, who said he attended Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School with Mr. Torres.

Workers and business owners on the heavily industrial block said the pair was likely among the handful of laborers who hang out along the strip, huddling together for company and sleeping in empty cars. Groups of men would line up early in the morning waiting for employers to pass through and pick them up for a day's work, said Andres Beato, 52, a contractor who said he has worked on the block for 25 years. When the laborers would return in the evening, they would spend the night in cars.

"They didn't have no money to rent a room," Mr. Beato said.

Danny Rosenblum, 53, the owner of New Breah, an auto-body shop on 36th Street, said he "knew guys were sleeping in the car," and said the van had been on the school bus lot for more than a year.

A police official with knowledge of the investigation said he was unaware of any complaints regarding the van and said it likely blended into the block, which is lined with auto-repair shops and warehouses.

Frank Candiano, 45, a glass installer who also said he was a high school classmate, said he planned to purchase a votive candle in memory of Mr. Torres. He recalled Mr. Torres as having a "jolly laugh."

"You couldn't tell that he slept in the streets sometimes, he was always happy," Mr. Candiano said. "I am sure he will be missed around here. He was a good guy, just didn't get along with his family."

—Rosaleen Ortiz contributed to this article.