Medford Man Faces Charges in Roxbury Fire

– Allison Goldsberry

A Medford man was arraigned in his hospital bed Wednesday in connection with a large fire in Roxbury on Monday. According to Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley the fire injured at least a dozen people and caused at least $4 million in property damages that left multiple homes unsafe for habitation.

Abdul Jabar Mohamed, 28, was charged with assault with intent to murder, arson of a dwelling, igniting a destructive device or substance, malicious destruction of property, and causing injury to a firefighter. He is being held on $100,000 bail.

Judge David Weingarten imposed three conditions of release recommended by Assistant District Attorney Dana Pierce. If Mohamed posts bail, he must surrender his passport and/or green card, he must check in twice weekly with the Department of Probation, and he must not leave Massachusetts while his case is pending.

“There’s evidence that this was a suicide attempt,” Conley said. “That may be. But it was much more than that: this fire caused an explosion that blew out an entire wall of a residential building in the middle of the night. It put dozens, if not hundreds, of lives in jeopardy. But for the brave and decisive action of Boston firefighters – and even the residents themselves – this could have been a tragedy of disastrous proportions.”

Mohamed suffered serious burn injuries in the fire and was arraigned in the Burn Unit of Massachusetts General Hospital. He was transported there from the Boston Medical Center, where he presented himself early Monday morning after allegedly setting the fire in a relative’s first-floor apartment at 71 Westminster Avenue.

According to information released by Conley, police gathering names and contact information at local hospitals questioned Mohamed later the same morning, first believing him to be a victim of the fire and not the person who caused it. It was at that time that he allegedly made statements that he “burned the house down.”

Pierce said Mohamed pulled the relative’s gas stove away from the wall, then reached behind it and wrenched away a pipe leading from the stove to the building’s gas main. When the pipe was “twisted, mangled, and broken away” from the stove, he allegedly set it alight with an open flame. The power of the explosion knocked away part of the building’s exterior facing Wardman Road and Westminster Avenue.

The fire spread from the initial Westminster Avenue site to the buildings at 3, 7, 9, and 11 Wardman Rd., according to Pierce. Boston Police and Boston Fire personnel broke through the front door into the Westminster Avenue building only to find the staircase collapsed and the upper floors inaccessible.

Residents were jumping from the upper windows, with one family tossing a young child into the waiting arms of a firefighter, Pierce said, adding that firefighters used ladder trucks and “aerial methods” to rescue other trapped occupants. Pierce said several residents and six firefighters suffered injuries that included lacerations, sprains, and smoke inhalation.

Pierce said the buildings are uninhabitable, with 50 to 60 residents displaced by the blaze. An initial estimate of $3 million in damages has grown to a “cautious estimate” of $4 million that does not include residents’ personal property.

A man who knew Jabar told Boston.com he “didn’t look good” in recent weeks and “had a lot of problems,” including no job and no money.

Mohamed was represented by attorney Neni Odiaga. His next court date is November 17.