SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK
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KOSOVO PROPERTIES, LLC and
BAJRAKTARI MANAGEMENT CORP., Plaintiffs,
-against-
REDACTED and JEREMY FISCHBACK (sic)
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AFFIDAVIT OF MARK ROSENBERG
Sir/Madam:
In the State of California, County of Alameda, Mark Rosenberg, under penalty of perjury, deposes and says:
- I declare under penalty of perjury and upon personal knowledge that the foregoing is true and correct:
- On January 27, 2006, at approximately 5:30 P.M., I arrived at Apartment 3-R, 216 West 22nd Street, New York, New York, to visit REDACTED and Jeremy Fischbach.
- Fischbach was there when I arrived, but left at around 6:00 P.M. for a recording session in New Jersey.
- Approximately one hour after Fischbach left, REDACTED noticed a small fire inside an oil-filled skillet on the kitchen stove. I assumed at the time that REDACTED's girlfriend had left the skillet on the stove. To my knowledge, neither REDACTED nor ever used the kitchen in the apartment. REDACTED later confirmed that it was REDACTED who left the oil-filled skillet on the stove.
- REDACTED attempted to extinguish the fire by dousing the skillet with water from a tap over the kitchen sink. The fire exploded outward from the skillet and---after spreading to numerous plastic dry-cleaning bags nearby---quickly consumed the entire kitchen. I assumed at the time that REDACTED had left the dry-cleaning bags nearby, because they contained women's clothes. I was told afterward by some combination of REDACTED, REDACTED and Fischbach that the dry-cleaning bags in fact belonged to REDACTED.
- Before the fire spread to the living room, I tried to contain the fire with a fire extinguisher, but I was not successful.
- While the fire was still contained to the kitchen, REDACTED left the apartment to seek medical attention for his burned hand. Soon afterward, I realized that the fire could not be contained. I ran upstairs to help an elderly neighbor evacuate down the stairs, and then I left the apartment building myself.
- Once outside the apartment building, I contacted Fischbach on his cell phone to inform him that his apartment was burning down, and that REDACTED had been injured. Fischbach was at a recording session when I contacted him, and said that he would return immediately.
- At the time Fischbach arrived at the apartment, N.Y.F.D. had been there for approximateiy one hour and a half.
- About an hour after Fischbach arrived, the N.Y.F.D. allowed Fischbach and myself back into the destroyed apartment. Nearly all of Fischbach's possessions---including thousands of dollars of electronic equipment---had been destroyed.
- To the best of my recollection, neither a sprinkler system nor a smoke alarm activated at any time during the events described above.
Dated this 14 day of September, 2008.
Mark Rosenberg
321 63rd Street, Unit C
Oakland, CA 94618
