Arsonist Set Fire At Midtown McDonald's, FDNY Says

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The city fire marshal's investigation bureau is trying to identify a man who started a fire at a busy Midtown Manhattan McDonald's restaurant, fire officials said.

The man is accused of lighting a fire at the McDonald's on Eighth Avenue between West 34th and 35th streets on Sunday around 4:30 p.m., fire officials said. Nobody was injured by the intentionally-set fire, officials said.

Fire officials released photos of the suspect on Tuesday.

The McDonald's location where the fire was set was the subject of a 2015 feature in the New York Times due to its seedy nature.

The Times Square of today often seems like a theme park, a blend of wax museums, flashy billboards and slow-walking, street-clogging tourists. But this nearby McDonald’s, on Eighth Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets, is a throwback to a seedier era in New York, a place where those same tourists sit amid drug addicts looking for a fix or nodding out at tables after taking methadone, or maybe something else.
Read the full feature here.

Anybody with information about the arson suspect is asked to call the city fire marshal's investigation bureau at (718) 722-3600.

Photo by Google Maps street view