MIDTOWN — He didn't love the nightlife.
A former hotel security officer set a series of fires in the Soho Grand and Yotel hotels over the last four years, hoping to scare off the "popular nighttime crowds" to make his job easier, authorities charge.
Mariano Barbosa, 30, was taken into custody Saturday in his Union City, N.J. home and charged with arson, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief for setting eight fires to linen and bedding at the two hotels where he worked, fire officials said.
"It's disturbing that an individual charged with the safety of hotel occupants would callously endanger their lives — and the lives of firefighters — for personal gain," Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano said.
Barbosa set sheets, napkins and a mattress ablaze in three different fires at the Soho Grand between Feb. 9, 2009 and May 8, 2010, according to court records.
He also allegedly burned a mattress, towels and bed sheets in five separate fires at Yotel Hotel from Oct. 8, 2011 to Sept. 8, 2013.
Fire investigators concluded that Barbosa had "set each fire to bring negative attention to the hotels and their popular nighttime crowds in an effort to produce a less active work environment for himself," the FDNY said in a statement.
Fire officials said the fires were set in hallways, stairwells and doorways to block hotel guests' escape routes and thwart firefighters.
He was arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court on Saturday and held on $50,000 bond, according to records.
Information on Barbosa's lawyer was not immediately available.
