Man Charged with Arson, Murder in Bronx Fire That Killed Three
New York Daily News
(TNS)
A suspected arsonist has been arrested for murder for a fire that killed three men — with two of the victims found in the Bronx building’s wreckage in the days after the blaze was extinguished, police said Tuesday.
Daniel Santana, 45, turned himself in, accompanied by a lawyer, at the 40th Precinct stationhouse around 9:30 p.m. Monday, cops said. He was charged with arson and three counts of murder.
Santana lives in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx and has six prior arrests, according to cops.
The May 6 blaze started around 5 a.m. and quickly engulfed El South Bronx Deli on Third Ave. near E. 140th St. in Mott Haven and the run-down apartment above, authorities said.
Investigators determined the fire was arson and launched a homicide investigation. Video recovered by authorities shows Santana setting the fire after spreading an accelerant, police sources say.
News of the collar came the same day the NYPD announced a homicide arrest for a fatal fire in Inwood that claimed the lives of three people, including a beloved fashion editor and her mother, two days before the Mott Haven fire.
More than 140 firefighters, EMTs and paramedics rushed to the Mott Haven blaze last Wednesday to find heavy flames shooting out of the El South Bronx Deli and the upstairs residence.
“Units initially made entry but due to heavy fire conditions and the threat of collapse they were driven out of the building,” an FDNY official at the scene told NY1.
Two firefighters and an emergency medical technician were taken to the hospital with minor injuries from battling the blaze, which took more than four hours to bring under control.
One of the victims was discovered once firefighters extinguished the fire, FDNY officials said. The two other bodies were found on Thursday and Friday in a section of the apartment where the ceiling had collapsed.
“Due to extensive structural damage, three deceased individuals were found during overhaul (and) demolition,” an FDNY spokesman said.
One victim was identified as 70-year-old Oreste de Leon while the other two men remain unidentified.
De Leon’s sister, Orpha Rivera, was too distraught to speak when reached by a reporter by phone on Sunday.
The building had been in de Leon’s family for generations, Rivera’s granddaughter Salina Rivera said.
“The building is gone. The deli is gone. And our family is left grieving the sudden loss of our family member. Losing him in such a tragic and violent way has left our family heartbroken and overwhelmed,” Rivera wrote on GoFundMe.
“This was not just a property — it was my grandmother’s childhood home, her late mother’s home, and a place filled with decades of memories, and history. It also housed the deli she rented out, which used to be my great grandmother’s and was recently renovated.”
Tuesday evening, the Daily News spoke with de Leon’s nephew as he exited the family’s home in the Bronx.
“We don’t know who this guy is,“ he said of the alleged arsonist. “We have no idea why (he did this).”
“My uncle was a good man. He didn’t deserve this.”
People were staying in the apartment above the deli despite a vacate order filed by the city’s Department of Buildings on Jan. 13, 2025. Inspectors found the second floor to be in a severe state of disrepair with missing handrails on the staircase. The ceiling, which collapsed in the fire, was sloping on its side, inspectors determined.
Because the vacate order was still in effect, firefighters responding to the 5 a.m. blaze thought the apartment was empty but neighbors quickly told them otherwise.
“(There were) people coming and going at all hours of the day and night,” neighbor James Ewing told the Daily News Monday. “But they were nice people. We never had any issues the whole time we were there.”
Ewing said de Leon was a “really sweet older gentleman.”
“(He was a) super nice guy. He’d always make sure the block was clean,” Ewing said. “He would find and recycle bikes and give them to the neighborhood kids.”
“I think he just allowed people to live there and stay there,” the neighbor said of the apartment, which he described as “in rough shape.”
“I don’t know the whole logistics of it all, but that was really kind of the case,” he said. “There were definitely the regulars that were usually in or around the building.”
Santana’s arraignment was pending in Bronx Criminal Court Tuesday.
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