Landlords Indicted in 2010 Brooklyn Fire That Killed 5

The indictment charges that tenants could not escape the fire because of illegal partitions that were set up in the building

The father-and-son owners of a Brooklyn building where five people died in a 2010 fire have been indicted on charges including manslaughter and reckless endangerment.

The indictment charges that the tenants could not escape the fire because the owners had set up illegal partitions that blocked their way out of the building in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn.

Landlord Vasilios Gerazounis, 68, and his 37-year-old son, Argyrios Gerazounis, are being arraigned Thursday in Brooklyn state Supreme Court.

Prosecutors have charged that Daniel Ignacio, a guest of one of the tenants, was drunk when he started the fire. He is awaiting trial on murder charges.

But Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes says the building owners share in the responsibility for the deaths.

Information on the landlords' attorney was not immediately available.

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