Contractor Accused Of Lying About Building Repairs
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
A contractor who worked on the structure of a Bronx 99 cent store that collapsed during a fire last year, killing two firefighters, has been arrested for allegedly lying to city investigators about repairs he had done on the building, officials said yesterday.
The contractor, Jose Vargas, is accused of telling investigators that he had replaced roof joists damaged in a previous fire in 2000 with steel beams.
Investigators looking into the cause of the 2007 fire in the same building that killed the two firefighters, Lieutenant Howard Carpluk and Firefighter Michael Reilly, found that the beams were wood, not steel.
The commissioner of the city’s Department of Investigation, Rose Gill Hearn, announced the arrest and indictment of Mr. Vargas on perjury charges yesterday. After his arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court yesterday, Mr. Vargas was released on his own recognizance.
