Man facing arson charge in Bantam Lake fire

TORRINGTON — A 22year-old Morris man is charged with arson in connection with a fire at a vacant building on Bantam Lake in October, officials said.

Daniel Hunchak, of Little Road, was arrested Thursday and charged with firstdegree arson and thirddegree burglary, according to State Police and court records.

State police and a series of fire departments responded to 231 Bantam Lake Road, known as the Bantam Lodge, on the evening of Oct. 28 for a structure fire at an abandonded residence, according to an affidavit.

Firefighters from Litchfield, Bantam, Morris and Bethlehem extinguished the blaze, but “(t)he house and the garage sustained heavy structural damage and the house was uninhabitable due to the fire that occured,” said Trooper Erinne-Rose M. Litwinczyk in the affidavit.

In the course of an investigation, police learned that a volunteer firefighter had found a cellphone while on scene and that a man called “DJ” had been seen in the abandonded house. The phone was eventually traced back to Hunchak, a resident of a nearby home, who was known as “DJ.”

After being contacted and questioned by police, Hunchak and a juvenile male eventually admitted to being in the house and starting a fire there.

Hunchak provided a sworn written statement to police.

He told police in the statement he had drunk four or five shots while watching television with the juvenile male, then walked

to the Bantam Lodge property.

Hunchak said he started a small fire, which he extinguished, then started another in a closet with the juvenile male. He attempted to suffocate the second fire, but it continued to burn, according to the affidavit.

He then started a fire on the second floor as well, which he said he also tried and failed to suffocate.

“The fire was getting too big for me to put out. After about 5-10 minutes, I was sweating and almost passed out. I couldn’t breathe. ( Juvenile male) had left me as soon as it got smoky and he went downstairs to wait for me because he was worried. Once I realized I couldn’t put the fire on the second floor out, I ran down to the fire on the first floor again and tried to slam the door on it again to put it out, but it didn’t go out,” Hunchak told police in

the statement. “At this point, the fire on the first floor was pretty big. Smoke was filling the first floor of the hosue too and I knew the house had a lot of flammable things so I ran out.”

The juvenile male ran out of the home, and the two watched fire trucks respond from the woods. Hunchack said he realized he had lost his cellphone on the way back to another home, according to police.

“It wasn’t intentional, I was just playing with fire. I didn’t use gasoline or anything to start the fires, just flammable stuff that was in the house. I have always been fascinated with fire and have started fires in the past and put them out, mostly in my burn barrel or on my lawn,” Hunchak said.

He told police he had previously been a member of the Morris Volunteer Fire Department for about six months. “I tried my best to put the fires I started in the house out, but I was drunk and the smoke almost made me pass out and the fires grew too big for me to even put out. I’m sorry(,) I didn’t mean to cause any harm.”

Police and the Morris Fire Marshal’s office determined the fire were purposefully lit by a person. No accelerants were found on scene.

“(T)he nature and conditions of this fire subjected the responding firefighters to a substantial risk of bodily injury due to the quickly spreading massive volume of fire and the collapsing building,” said Litwinczyk in the affidavit.

Hunchak was arraigned Friday in state Superior Court in Torrington, according to court records.

Bail was set at $100,000 and the matter was transferred to Part A proceedings, where more serious matters are adjudicated.

Hunchak is scheduled to return to court on Dec. 12.

Hunchak