American Diner Owner Faces Arson Charge

The owner of the American Diner on East 204th Street in Norwood is behind the fire that destroyed his business, a Foodtown, and a dental office on Dec. 21, a Fire Department spokesman told The New York Times.

Mohammed Abdul Quadir was arrested yesterday on arson and other charges. The authorities believe he paid another man, Christopher J. Gooding, about $2,000 to start the blaze. Gooding has also been arrested.

Quadir, who is up to his eyeballs in debt, had recently taken out a $500,000 insurance policy on the diner, and saw arson as a way out of his financial predicament, the FDNY spokesman said.

Here's the Bronx News Network's coverage of the fire and its aftermath (scroll down for additional posts). It was the third major fire in the area since April.

Another Fire in Norwood in 51 days.

By now most of you have read the News and seen the destruction caused by the early morning fire on 204 street in the Norwood section of the Bronx.
The phone rang at 4:45 am and I thought "It cannot be another fire". The last time I had received an early morning call it was October 31 and we lost more than 10 businesses on Bainbridge ave. Here are some of the photographs I made while I watched my family's favorite store burn (Foodtown). "Where are we going to buy ice cream" was my 5 year old daughters reaction. The last quarter of 2009 has not been good for Our community. We are a close knit community here in Norwood. Thanks to my friend's call I was one of the first photographers to get to the location. You can see the empty snow covered lot created by the October 31st fire in the last photograph of the slide show