NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A homeless man with a rap sheet stretching back decades was charged Wednesday in connection with Saturday morning’s deadly fire and explosion at a high-rise in the Bronx.
Samuel Calderon, 55, faces charges of murder, manslaughter, assault, burglary, petit larceny, criminal contempt and harassment in connection with the fiery blast at the Boston Secor Houses in Eastchester just after midnight Saturday morning.
According to authorities, Calderon broke into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment to steal a gas stove—but he ruptured a gas line in the process, filling the building with natural gas and sparking the explosion. Neighbors described hearing a boom and feeling a vibration as the blast tore through the upper floors of 3475 Bivona St., a 17-story residential high-rise.
The blast killed 60-year-old Ronald McCallister, a resident of the building. More than a dozen other people were injured, some of them critically.
Additionally, about 300 residents are now displaced after a full vacate order was issued for the building. It took over 200 firefighters hours to get the fire under control.
One resident said she was glad they made an arrest, but she said there’s “a bigger concern about security” at the housing complex.
“So these units are newly renovated,” she said. “How was a homeless person able to get into an apartment and detach a stove?”
Andy, who lives at the complex, called the whole situation ridiculous, and said the blast “woke me up out of my sleep.”
“There’s all new appliances inside of these buildings, so I’m sure he saw the opportunity—and obviously dire consequences,” he said.
Levonette Demitro said her friends are now homeless and residents' lives have been upended.
“It’s kind of messed up looking at everything that all the innocent people have to deal with, just because he wanted to take a stove,” she said.
Demitro also raised the issue of security, saying the doors are never locked. “Anybody can come in. We have another homeless guy who sleeps in my building,” she said.
According to reports, Calderon has more than two dozen arrests going back to the 1980s, including for burglary.