Arsonist gets 10 years for manslaughter in death of Pisgat Ze’ev woman

Before she died, London was able to call her husband and scream “fire” multiple times. The rescue team arrived on the scene and found her unconscious in the shower.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Updated: JANUARY 5, 2018 06:16
Scene of a large explosion and fire in Jaffa, November 27, 2017 (photo credit: MAGEN DAVID ADOM)
Scene of a large explosion and fire in Jaffa, November 27, 2017
(photo credit: MAGEN DAVID ADOM)
The Jerusalem District Court sentenced Ravid Sari on Thursday to 10 years in prison for arson and manslaughter for the death of a woman in the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood caused by the January 2015 fire.
Sari, and two others who were previously sentenced to similar prison terms, started a fire on the second floor of a Pisgat Ze’ev apartment building with the intention of destroying the property of those who lived there.
Though the three defendants intended to only destroy property and had checked that the apartment they burned was empty of people, the smoke and fire spread upward.
Orit London, a young married woman living on the third floor, was caught up in the smoke and flames and died from smoke inhalation.
Before she died, London was able to call her husband and scream “fire” multiple times. The rescue team arrived on the scene and found her unconscious in the shower.
London was then taken to the hospital where she died about two weeks later.
This was the third and final sentencing in the crime.
The three defendants decided to burn the apartment after they had a dispute with residents who lived on the second floor of the building.
The defendants also stole a variety of items from the apartment before setting the blaze.
Sari was also ordered to pay NIS 250,000 in fines: NIS 100,000 to London’s husband; NIS 50,000 to her parents; NIS 90,000 to be divided among her siblings; and NIS 10,000 to the occupants of the second floor apartment.