A 5-year-old was critically injured in a Brooklyn fire he set Monday as revenge for being punished by his grandmother, police and fire sources said.
Jay (Tito) Morales suffered third-degree burns to 70% of his body after he used a lighter to ignite the curtains in Nancy Herrera's Bushwick home, fire sources said. Herrera, 63, suffered minor injuries.
"It's all about revenge," a source said. "What's scary is he thought of this and he is only 5."
The boy twice prank-called 911 recently and told cops his grandmother was dead or in trouble, sources said. To punish the boy, Herrera forbade him from going to the park Monday with two friends.
As the friends left the house, Jay whispered to a 9-year-old, "I'm going burn this house down and kill grandma," a source said. Smoke detectors alerted Herrera to the blaze, but the heat prevented her from reaching the boy, who was in a front bedroom. .....
He clung to life last night, as his inconsolable mother and family stood by. "He's a beautiful kid," said his uncle Rudy Morales, 47. "The baby played with matches. ... He tried to play with matches before."
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