Didn’t mean to kill
Exclusive interview with fatal Brooklyn firebug
THE DEADLY fire that ripped through a Brooklyn building and killed two people was an accident, according to the woman accused of starting the blaze.
Jailed murder suspect Joanna Mei claims she placed a smoldering piece of newspaper in the trash as she left her Dyker Heights home on her way to school, but didn’t realize the scrap would spark an inferno.
“There was a newspaper on the ground that wasn’t in the correct bin so I put it on top of a cardboard box and went downstairs,” the 22-year-old nursing student told the Daily News on Saturday in a Rikers Island interview.
Mei, wearing a beige jumpsuit and glasses repeatedly pushed her long, straight black hair out of her face as she denied intentionally setting the Thursday morning fire.
“I was walking down the stairs and a few steps down I saw some bicycles laying around and something that looked like water on the floor,” she said. “Some of the water got on me too and it smelled.”
Specially trained dogs from the FDNY K-9 Unit found gas on Mei while police interviewed her, sources said.
The dogs also found possible accelerants in other spots, including the third floor, where tenants Xi Huang, 58, and Feng Xu, 56, died.
Mei, who also lived on the third floor with her family, was charged with two counts of murder and arson.
Despite her denials on Saturday, sources say that Mei admitted to cops she started the blaze because she was upset about trash in the hallways and about a relative’s death several years ago.
Mei also had a small burn on her right hand, sources said.
After setting the fire in a garbage can, she told cops that she changed her mind and tried to put it out by kicking it over, spreading the smoldering rubbish, sources said.
Mei told The News she remembers the newspaper looking kind of black when she moved it.
It was only later that she found out what she thought was water on the floor was actually gasoline.
“I left around 6:45. By the time I made it down the block, the fire started,” she said. “I ran back to my family.”
She doesn’t know who called 911, but said it wasn’t her.
Her younger sister, mother and brother all got out safely from their third-floor apartment.
As for the two victims that died, Mei said she only knew them as her neighbors.
“I didn’t know them really well. They moved in about a year ago. I only said hi and bye to them,” she said. I feel sorry for them. Two people died.”
A neighbor told the accused arsonist that the pair briefly escaped the inferno but decided to go back in to save their belongings.
“A woman in our building saw them come out when the fire started and said they went back in to get their money and all their important stuff,” she said.
In addition to the two dead, a family of four, which included a 3-month-old boy, was taken to Maimonides Medical Center with smoke inhalation. Three firefighters also suffered minor injuries.
Despite being ordered held without bail, Mei said she expects she’ll be freed before too long.
“I’m not getting used this. I’m going to get out of here soon,” she said.