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by WILLIAM MURPHY
A Jamaican native involved in a 1996 fire that killed a New York City firefighter was detained and faces deportation for a felony conviction stemming from the blaze.
Barrington Williams, 42, served a year in jail in 1997 for forging vehicle identification numbers of cars in a Brooklyn shop. The tool being used to remove the auto identification tags sparked a fire, leading to a roof collapse that killed firefighter Louis Valentino of Rescue Company 2.
"Upon his release from prison, the fact that he was not a U.S. citizen went unnoticed," the New York City Fire Department said in a statement yesterday. "The oversight was recently discovered as a result of heightened awareness of the status of illegal immigrants in the U.S. and the threat of terrorism."
Immigration officials asked the Fire Department for help in locating Williams, whom fire marshals had arrested following the fatal fire.
Fire Marshals Salvatore Rignola and Lawrence Pliska arrested Williams Monday afternoon after a brief struggle at the house where he was staying on Gilroy Avenue in Uniondale. He was taken to a federal holding facility and will be deported to Jamaica, the department said.
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