Landlords charged in deadly Brooklyn apartment fire By Jessica Dye NEW YORK (Reuters) - A father and son have been charged with manslaughter in connection with an arson fire that killed five undocumented immigrants living in the illegally subdivided Brooklyn apartment building they own, prosecutors said on Thursday. Vasilios Gerazounis, 68, and his son, Argyrios Gerazounis, 37, were arraigned in Brooklyn state court on charges including manslaughter, reckless endangerment and assault. They each face up to 25 years in prison if convicted, according to the Brooklyn district attorney's office. What were meant to be one-family units on two floors in the Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, building were split up to house 10 people per floor, prosecutors said. All of the building's tenants were undocumented Guatemalans working in New York as day laborers or retails clerks, according to the district attorney's office. When a fire broke out on January 30, 2010, five tenants were killed because their exits were blocked by illegal partitions separating the rooms, prosecutors said. One of the victims, Luisa Chan, died while saving her 2-month-old daughter and 2-year-old son, according to the Brooklyn district attorney's office. A guest of one of the tenants, Daniel Ignacio, allegedly started the fire while he was drunk. He is in jail awaiting trial on five counts of second-degree murder, the district attorney's office said. "The landlords share in the responsibility for each of the five deaths and the injuries," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said in a statement. They owned, maintained and made money from a building with illegal subdivisions that blocked tenants' ability to escape in a deadly fire. At an earlier hearing, Argyrios Gerazounis denied having any knowledge of the illegal partitions. But prosecutors said a multi-agency investigation had uncovered evidence that the defendants had entered each room on multiple occasions to collect rent, and were aware of the subdivisions. Argyrios Gerazounis has also been charged with perjury for allegedly lying about his knowledge of the layout. He faces an additional 2 to 7 years in prison if convicted on that charge. An attorney for Argyrios Gerazounis said his client intends to vigorously contest the charges. George Vomvolakis, who is representing Vasilios Gerazounis, said the fire was "devastating" for the landlords as well, and that there are "clearly other contributing factors" that led to the fire, including the man who set it. "He's looking forward to his day in court so he can show everyone he didn't do anything," Vomvolakis said. Bail has been set at $200,000 apiece, a spokesman for the district attorney's office said. Prosecutors had requested that bail be set at $1 million for each man. Reporting by Jessica Dye; editing by Paul Thomasch and Mohammad Zargham