An early-morning arson fire tore through a Long Island apartment yesterday, killing a mother and three children while neighbors, her husband and two sons escaped by jumping out a second-story window, officials said.
The fire, which broke out at 5:39 a.m., appears to have been intentionally set on a stairway leading up to the two apartments above a Lawrence coin laundry, Nassau County Police Detective Lt. Kevin Smith said.
The blaze cut off the only escape route.
The fire marshal has “deemed this a suspicious fire. They have eliminated all natural and accidental causes, and it is being investigated by our homicide squad,” Smith said.
Investigators pored over the burned-out remains of the building with a specially trained dog and detected the presence of a possible accelerant, but were waiting for lab tests to be sure.
While eight people got out the apartments’ rear windows, Marena Vanegas, 46, her son Saul Presa, 19, and daughters Andrea Vanegas, 13, and Susanna Vanegas, 9, were trapped and killed.
Marena’s husband, Eddie, 42, got out with sons Eddie Jr., 12, and Susanna’s twin brother, Lionel, and pleaded with his wife to jump.
“The father jumped out the window with the 9-year-old boy in his arms. The 12-year-old jumped out, and the father caught him,” said Marena’s former brother-in-law Gary Seldman.
“The mother was at the window. The father was pleading with her, ‘Drop the kids!’ but she was scared and confused. She probably didn’t realize that she was going to die.”
Eddie Vanegas and his surviving children gathered with relatives at a nearby church, where the dad was inconsolable.
“Why didn’t I burn?” he yelled. “Why did I jump out first? Why wasn’t that me?”
A tenant staying with the family and four neighbors also managed to escape.
Presa leaves behind an 8-month-old son.
Marena’s sister, America Chavez, said she could not imagine who would want to hurt her sister’s family.
“I don’t know who would do this. Whoever did it has to be brought to justice,” she said.
Seldman echoed the sentiment.
“I’d like to see the family have some private time with whoever did this,” he said. “People like this – they don’t deserve to walk on our planet.”
The couple had been struggling make ends meet recently since the father, a day laborer who came from El Salvador more than 20 years ago, had been having trouble finding work because of the troubled economy.
Seldman said the family was behind on rent, and their landlord had threatened them with eviction in recent weeks.
He added that the family had no money to pay for four funerals and asked that donations to be sent to: The Vanegas Family Fund, PO Box 550, Lynbrook, NY 11563.