By Michael Frazier
Newsday
Copyright 2007 Newsday, Inc.
NEW YORK — Just a few hours after a man was arrested in a Baldwin arson earlier this month, another fire was deliberately set Saturday in Elmont, leaving a family of five homeless and police looking for a suspect.
On Saturday, a former Baldwin man was arrested about 2:40 p.m. after he was extradited from Florida in connection with fires Jan. 14 that destroyed two sport utility vehicles and damaged a Baldwin home.
In the Elmont case, nine fire departments responded to a blaze on Roquette Avenue about 11:50 p.m. Saturday. A two-story house, a small cottage-style home and a detached garage had been ignited, Nassau police said. No arrests have been made.
“I got my grandson and I got out of the house,” said Dorothy McBride, who said 5-month-old Rodman and three others lived in the cottage that was gutted.
McBride, 50, said her son awoke her with screams about fire. “I just thank God I got out,” she said.
It took about 120 volunteer firefighters about two hours to control the blaze in the three buildings, Elmont’s first assistant fire chief, Robert Chernow, said.
There were no reported injuries. McBride said investigators told her that they believe someone poured gasoline, or some other accelerant, on the structures before igniting them. No one with Nassau’s Arson / Bomb Squad could be reached yesterday for comment.
McBride said the Nassau County chapter of the American Red Cross made hotel arrangements for her and her family.
In the Baldwin case, Patrick Pilorge, 35, of Spring Hill, Fla., pleaded not guilty yesterday in First District Court in Hempstead after his arrest on multiple arson charges. He was ordered held without bail.
Pilorge and his wife, Sandra, 34, moved two years ago from Baldwin to Spring Hill. The couple has a son, 14, and a daughter, 9, his wife said.
“I don’t know anything,” Sandra Pilorge said in a telephone interview from the couple’s home in Florida, where her husband worked as a loan officer. “I’m just waiting for his lawyer to call me,” she said, crying.
Her husband’s lawyer was Allen Adipietro of Hempstead, she said. Adipietro didn’t return a call yesterday seeking comment.
Pilorge is accused of torching a 2004 Land Rover and a 2001 BMW X5 parked in the driveway of a home on Lincoln Street in Baldwin. The flames spread to the home and caused extensive damage, police said.
Two men, ages 40 and 36, three children, ages 1, 10, and 4, and a woman, 33, escaped the burning home without injuries.
After setting the blaze, police said, Pilorge left in a white car. He was arrested four days later at his Florida home and was brought back to Nassau County.
Police said he was charged with one count of second-degree arson and two counts of third-degree arson, all felonies.