Detectives charged 55-year-old Samuel Calderon, who is homeless, with two counts of murder, manslaughter, assault, burglary, petit larceny, criminal contempt and harassment.
The deadly fire at the Boston Secor houses on Bivona Street in Eastchester after midnight on Saturday was sparked by a gas explosion and police and fire marshals believe it was because Calderon ripped a stove away inside of an apartment, leaving a gas leak.
The FDNY was already on the scene to investigate the gas odor on the 15th floor after neighbors were alerted about a leak.
The explosion occurred in the building about 15 minutes after emergency officials arrived on the scene.
Several apartments became fully engulfed in flames.
The fire killed 60-year-old resident Ronald McCallister, and injured 15 other people.
Residents were seen in the windows of the building and one man was even spotted dangling with his legs out of the building as he tried to escape the intense heat from the fire.
Now five days later, hundreds of residents still can't go home. The building is under a vacate order and structurally damaged from the blast.
"It's kind of messed up. Looking at what all the innocent people have to deal with," one neighbor said.
Sources say Calderon somehow got into his ex's apartment knowing she wouldn't be home. Sources believe he was planning to sell the stove to buy drugs.
He was caught on video pushing a stove out of his ex-girlfriend's apartment on Friday night.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the person who lost their life, the people who are now displaced and have to figure out how to start over. You know, it wasn't worth it. We know it wasn't worth it," a neighbor said.
Police say McCallister was not the suspect's intended target.
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