The feds announced on Friday that two men have been arrested in connection with an arson conspiracy that left a Fair Haven laundromat in flames last July.
On the evening of July 30, 2009, a two-alarm fire ripped through the People’s Laundromat at 83 Lombard Street in Fair Haven. The business belonged to Fair Haven developer Angelo Reyes, who tearfully vowed to rebuild after the fire. Click play to watch his comments from last August.
While extinguishing the blaze, a firefighter was injured and unable to return to work until November, 2009. No one else was injured.
The fire was deemed an arson after gasoline cans and accelerant traces were found at the scene. An investigation ensued.
On Friday, Connecticut’s U.S. Attorney David Fein announced that two New Haven men — a father and son — have been arrested for starting the blaze. According to the indictment of a federal grand jury, the two men were part of an arson-for-hire scheme that involved a third person, whose name was not released on Friday.
Seeking to allay suspicion that he might have started the blaze to collect insurance, Reyes said shortly after the fire that the business was not insured. Reyes is not mentioned in the U.S. Attorney’s press release.
Contacted on Friday, Reyes said he had no comment on the news of the arrests.
Here’s how the arson and investigation unfolded, according to the grand jury indictment:
The father and son agreed to the arson plan with the expectation that they would be paid or “receive other benefits” for their participation. The son was to start the blaze while the father acted as a lookout.
Before the fire, the son tried to obtain gasoline cans from a convenience store he often went to in New Haven. The father drove a car to the laundromat and carried gas cans inside.
On July 30, the son lit the fire. Later that night he went to Yale-New Haven Hospital to be treated for severe burns to one of his legs. He claimed that he was burned while working on a car that caught fire.
On Aug. 5, the son tried to avoid police by moving temporarily to Florida. He got someone to buy a plane ticket for him online. Before he left, the son “stated that he had set the laundromat on fire and needed to go away until things cooled down with the investigation.”
In October, the son refused to comply with a court order to allow officers to photograph his leg burns.
If convicted, the father and son face a minimum of seven and a maximum of 40 years in prison.
The arrests were the result of a joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Connecticut State Police, the New Haven Police Department, and the New Haven Fire Department.
I'm glad that Reyes seems to have been exonerated: I saw several comments rushing to judge him for the fire. I thought he was a righteous dude who wouldn't do something like that, and I'm glad that the evidence seems to support my opinion! Good luck Reyes.