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by TONY SCLAFANI
A shoekeeper who took out $100,000 in insurance days before his Crown Heights store went up in flames was charged with setting the blaze, fire officials said yesterday.
The intense fire Monday afternoon at Fashion Unlimited, 802 Nostrand Ave., hurt 18 people, including three children and 10 firefighters, two of whom were taken to the burn unit at Weill Cornell Medical Center.
The owner of the store, Baldev Raj, was allegedly caught in a web of lies after fire marshals grilled him for hours at the 77th Precinct stationhouse on Utica Ave.
"There was several inconsistencies to his story," said supervising fire marshal Rick Barry. "He seemed to be talking in circles and wouldn't answer the hard questions."
Raj allegedly ignited a pile of bills, newspaper circulars and a shredded telephone book behind the counter, then walked down the block to watch the flames grow, fire officials said.
Raj, who was seen in tears soon after, was six months behind in rent and set to be evicted on Sept. 21, officials said. He also was two months behind on rent at his Nostrand Ave. home.
Neighbors above Raj's women's clothing shop said he quickly alerted them to the blaze, but marshals believe he was only out to save his cash-losing store.
"This is the last chance he's got to make money on that store," Chief Fire Marshal Louis Garcia said. "He put people in a lot of danger lighting this type of fire. Someone could have been killed."
The blaze broke out just after 1 p.m., with the flames spreading across the sidewalk and licking adjacent buildings and the floors above. More than 100 firefighters battled the fire, which gutted the almost-empty store.
Raj told marshals he had several thousand dollars in the register and about $40,000 worth of clothes inside, but neither the register nor the cash was found, Barry said. Days earlier, neighbors said, they saw piles of clothes being removed from the shop, Barry said.
Marshals arrested Raj, who was charged with second-degree arson and reckless endangerment. Last year, marshals probed 4,000 fires, about half of which were deliberately set.
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