Bound Brook Woman Pleads Guilty to Arson

A Bound Brook resident pleaded guilty Friday to charges of six counts of aggravated arson and one count of aggravated assault in connection to a fire that injured multiple people in September. In exchange, the State recommended she serve seven years in prison, with 85 percent to be served without parole, according to Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano.

Yanilda Rosario, 39, was arrested Sept. 18, 2011 after an investigation revealed that she started a fire that injured a 45-year-old male in a home on Vosseller Avenue in Bound Brook, Soriano said.

Soriano said that at 7:40 p.m. on Sept. 18, Bound Brook Police and the Bound Brook Fire Department were called to fire at a two-family home on Vosseller Avenue in Bound Brook. When they arrived, Soriano said, firemen found a 45-year-old male on the second floor, lying face down, unconscious and suffering from burns.

The man, Soriano said, was taken to the burn center at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.

According to Soriano, a 29-year-old pregnant female and a 25-year-old male, who were also residents of the house, had jumped out a window and suffered smoke inhalation, with the man suffering from a laceration to his right hand after breaking a glass window.

At the time of the fire, Soriano said, there was also a 56-year-old man living on the second floor, who suffered smoke inhalation, but escaped out the front door. And, Soriano said, a 49-year-old male on the first floor noticed a curtain on fire on the second floor and attempted to extinguish it.

Finally, Soriano said, a 31-year-old female on the first floor escaped out of the front door unharmed.

Soriano said the investigation found that the fire was intentionally set at two different points, and it was ruled an arson.

The burn victim's girlfriend, later identified as Rosario according to Soriano, was found to be present in the house most of the day before the fire. An eyewitness saw Rosario leaving the structure just before the fire was discovered, Soriano said.

According to Soriano, investigators found that Rosario started the fire on the second floor by lighting a cigarette and tossing it into a small closet area outside the burn victim's door. Then, Soriano said, she walked out of the second floor apartment and used a lighter to ignite the curtains in the common hallway.

Soriano said the burn victim survived, but had severe upper torso burns, and burns to his face, hands, arms, chest, head and neck.

Rosario's bail was revoked, Soriano said, and she was sent to Somerset County Jail, with sentencing scheduled for Oct. 4.