BROOKLYN, NY – Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced today that an East Flatbush man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for setting a fire that injured eight tenants and one firefighter. The fire spread across multiple apartments, resulting in various injuries including bone fractures and smoke inhalation.
The defendant, identified as Sedgrick Jacob, 32, was sentenced by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jane Tully. Jacob had pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted arson on October 3, 2023.
According to the investigation, the incident occurred on May 25, 2021, at around 4:48 a.m. Jacob set a mattress on fire in his first-floor apartment at 255 East 95th Street, a two-story building with two apartments on each level, and then left the premises. The fire spread to a second-floor apartment, making the main fire staircase unusable for evacuation.
In the affected second-floor apartment, a 48-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man sustained fractures after jumping from a window to escape. A 23-year-old woman in the apartment was intubated due to severe smoke inhalation. A 49-year-old man and three children, aged 3, 7, and 11, managed to escape the second floor with the help of passersby and firefighters. They sustained minor burns and smoke inhalation.
Another tenant, a 36-year-old man in a first-floor apartment, was unable to escape and suffered burns to his feet and heavy smoke inhalation, leading to his intubation. A firefighter responding to the scene was also hospitalized due to burns.
Surveillance video from the building showed Jacob leaving shortly after starting the fire and later observing the smoke emerging from the building before fleeing the scene.
District Attorney Gonzalez said the sentence holds Jacob accountable for endangering multiple lives, leading to life-threatening injuries for some. He added that the victims have since recovered.