The man accused of setting numerous fires to an apartment on Spring Street in lower Manhattan was charged with arson—as well as murder—for the five-alarm Thursday night blaze. One of his neighbors was found dead on a third floor fire escape.
Wei Chu Wu, 45, also faces attempted assault on a firefighter and resisting arrest charges. Wu's actions were allegedly sparked by a fight with his wife: The Post reports that he was "convinced his wife was sleeping with another man, law-enforcement sources said yesterday... He also allegedly menaced her with a knife, cutting her hand, before Zheng fled their second-floor apartment with their 13-year-old son, sources added. Wu then used a lighter to set two beds afire — and told the family’s roommate Ying Eng, 72, 'We’re all gonna die!' according to sources."
Spring Street between Mott and Mulberry was blocked off (Jen Chung/Gothamist)
The Daily News says that he "sat smoking on his couch as the five-alarm fire he started in his kitchen roared to life behind him, and told his roommate — who discovered him there around 6:30 p.m. — 'Go report it. Everyone is going to die,' police sources said... Investigators believe the unemployed Chinese immigrant set several fires in the apartment Thursday night, including lighting mattresses in a bedroom, and then left the doors open so the blaze would spread faster."
The fire essentially destroyed the five-story tenement as the blaze consumed the building. A body found by firefighters was "burned beyond recognition" but it was later determined to be that of Lea Spivack, the new wife of tenant Jim Spivack. A neighbor told the News that on the night of the fire, Jim Spivack was upset, “He was saying, ‘I lost everything and I can’t find my wife.'"
One longtime neighborhood resident told us that he heard the building wasn't very well maintained and that it would probably be torn down (there is a FULL VACATE order from the Department of Buildings, noting, "BUILDING EXTEVSIVE FIRE DAMAGE. ROOF OPEN STAIRS PARTIALLY C OLLAPSED FULL"). Another building resident told the News, "You can’t be mad at him because he’s insane. I don’t think he did this with a lot of though."
