PLAINVIEW, Long Island (WABC) — A Long Island man is accused of setting a house fire that killed two dogs and one cat on Monday.
It happened at 21 Eileen Avenue at 7:50 p.m. in Plainview.
Police say 40-year-old Jahan Kia started the second-alarm fire in his basement stairwell.
The Bethpage Fire Department responded with assistance from several neighboring fire departments to extinguish the flames.
There were no residents inside the house, but two dogs and one cat were found dead inside the home.
As many as 10 people lived in the home and residents say the blaze could have taken an even larger toll.
Two firefighters suffered injuries as a result of the fire and were transported to an area hospital for smoke inhalation and burns to the hands.
No other injuries were reported.
In video shared exclusively with Eyewitness News minutes after the fire was set, flames are seen ravaging the home. The video then shows two tenants – a man and a woman.
One of them is Kia, who clearly remained on the scene, and was even heard trying to deflect the blame.
Sources close to the investigation told Eyewitness News that Kia was known to behave strangely, and tenants knew it as well.
“He’s mentally disturbed. I don’t know why they rented the apartment to him in the first place,” said tenant Ariana Belfort. “And he lit the basement on fire, and it engulfed the whole house.”
Neighbors say Kia’s own cat was killed in the blaze, and neighbors say he stood around at the scene like it was nothing.
“He was walking around, he was hanging out in the neighbor’s house on their couch,” Belfort said. “And everything that we all own, on the first floor on the second floor is completely gone. Everything I have. My dogs were killed. He killed his own cat. He’s an animal.”
A mother of three is demanding answers from her landlord.
“How do you sleep at night? How do you think this is ok? I have nothing,” the woman said.
Eyewitness News asked the landlord’s father about the fire and the suspect.
“I swear to God I do not know anything about this guy,” said the landlord’s father, Scott Nordin. “He was a normal person. He did normal things. And then this.”
Kia is charged with arson in the third degree, criminal mischief in the second degree and torturing/Injuring animals.
There is no word yet on a motive.
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