Cops: Landlord set home aflame with family inside

A landlord is facing charges for allegedly setting his Uniondale home on fire after getting into a dispute with a tenant. Investigators say Daswell Anderson lives in the basement of a home he rents

News 12 Staff

Dec 29, 2015, 3:19 AM

Updated 3,183 days ago

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A landlord is facing charges for allegedly setting his Uniondale home on fire after getting into a dispute with a tenant.
Investigators say Daswell Anderson lives in the basement of a home he rents to the Corpenos, a family of four. On Sunday night, the family heard a banging noise on the basement pipes, then smelled gas and spotted smoke. They were able to escape and call 911, and Anderson was arrested for allegedly starting a fire in the basement.
"He basically tried to kill us last night," tenant Bianca Corpeno told News 12.
Corpeno says she and her husband have been in an ongoing dispute with Anderson since they moved in six months ago. "We pay rent every month. The only problem was our kids," she says.
Corpeno says Anderson "seemed like a nice guy" before they moved in, and says she informed him of her two young children, who are 3 years old and 5 months old. Not long after they arrived, however, she says he began complaining about her children being too loud.
According to Corpeno, Anderson began harassing them, and she also claims that Anderson threatened her husband last week. "He followed him with a brick trying to kill him," she says. "We called the police and I don't know why they didn't have him arrested then."
Nassau police could not confirm any previous incidents at the home, and said that Anderson does not have any previous arrests.
Anderson is charged with second-degree arson and first-degree reckless endangerment, and was ordered held on $100,000 bond in court Monday.
The Corpeno family is now looking for a new place to live. They are staying with a cousin as they seek to apply for emergency housing.