A Long Island landlord has been accused of arson after police allege he purposefully set fire to a home he rented out and lived in amid an ongoing dispute with his tenants.
Daswell Anderson, 69, was arrested on charges of arson and reckless endangerment late Sunday.
Tenants called 911 around 10:35 p.m. to report a fire at their home on Warren Street in Westbury.
Police said Anderson, who owns the home and lives in the basement, was having a dispute with the tenants, a family to whom he rents the ground floor.
The tenants said they heard Anderson banging on the pipes in the basement and smelled gas coming up from there. They left the home and called 911.
Firefighters with the Uniondale Fire Department arrived and encountered a fire. They extinguished the flames and shut off leaking gas.
Anderson was found in the basement and taken to a local hospital for evaluation. He was arrested following an investigation and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Monday.
He is being represented by Legal Aid which doesn't comment on ongoing cases. A possible phone number for his home on Warren Street in Uniondale wasn't ringing properly.
U.S. & World
No one was injured in the fire.
