A security officer who worked at two Manhattan hotels was arrested on Saturday and charged with setting eight fires at the hotels over four years, fire officials said. 
 
 According to fire marshals, Mariano Barbosa Jr., the director of security at the Yotel on 10th Avenue and 42nd Street, set the fires in an attempt to make the hotels less popular and his job more manageable. 
 
 Mr. Barbosa, 30, of West New York, N.J., had also worked as a security officer at the SoHo Grand on West Broadway. 
 
 He is accused of starting the fires, the first in 2009 and the last this month, in hallways, in stairwells and in front of exit doors to maximize the potential damage. He was on duty when the fires broke out, the Fire Department said. All of the fires, which were set between 10:11 p.m. and 5:09 a.m., were quickly extinguished. 
 
 Two firefighters sustained minor injuries in a fire in February, Jim Long, the Fire Department’s director of public information, said. 
 
 Mr. Barbosa was arrested, Mr. Long said, after he submitted to voluntary questioning. It became clear during those interviews that Mr. Barbosa was the likely culprit, Mr. Long said. 
 
 It appeared to fire marshals that Mr. Barbosa had grown tired of patrons at the hotels’ bars and parties, said a fire official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation. “He desired that the incidents would be blamed on the clientele, and if that was the case maybe they would curtail the parties, and the venues would be more manageable,” the official said. 
 
 Yotel said in a statement that it was cooperating with the Fire Department and the police. A spokeswoman for the SoHo Grand declined to comment. 
 
 “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,” the fire commissioner, Salvatore J. Cassano, said in a statement. 
 
 Before Mr. Barbosa’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Saturday evening, his wife, Leslie Martinez, 27, said Yotel gave him an award last year, which included a four-day trip to Las Vegas. 
 
 She said he worked hard for the company and often slept in complimentary rooms, just so he could be there when he woke up for his next shift. 
 
 “This is a slap in the face,” Ms. Martinez said, fighting back tears. “I don’t understand how all of the sudden he’s the bad guy.” 
 
 She said she met Mr. Barbosa at a church in Brooklyn when she was 14 and he was 18. They have been married 12 years and have three young sons, two of them autistic. 
 
 “For them to turn this around on him is completely unfair,” Ms. Martinez said. ||||| FDNY officials claim Mariano Barbosa set fires in New York City hotels so that they would temporarily shut down and he could go to a free hotel room and drink the afternoon away. 
 
 Conflicting pictures emerged about a hotel security director in New York who allegedly set fires to get out of work, with a co-worker calling him a “normal person” as authorities gave new details about his four-year spree. 
 
 Mariano Barbosa, 26, is being held on arson, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief charges — and prosecutors revealed how he committed the crimes. 
 
 Frank Franklin II/AP The Yotel Hotel in New York offers a luggage robot. Too bad a security director can't also be replaced by an automaton, or the Yotel could have avoided several fires allegedly set by former security chief Mariano Barbosa. 
 
 Barbosa lit up bedding materials in his first fire in February 2009 while heading security at the Soho Grand Hotel, according to court documents. 
 
 Barry Winiker/Getty Images The Soho Grand Hotel in downtown Manhattan has the dubious distinction of being where former security director Mariano Barbosa allegedly set his first deliberate fire. 
 
 At the Yotel Hotel, Barbosa used a towel in three separate incidents and bed sheets in two others from October 2011 to this month, court documents show. 
 
 Kendall Rodriguez Mariano Barbosa was arraigned Sunday morning in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges that he allegedly set series of arson fires in New York City hotels where he worked. 
 
 A Yotel co-worker was stunned. 
 
 “He was a normal person, I was surprised, just like any one else,” the worker said. ||||| The blaze in an Oakland, California, warehouse that functioned as an unsanctioned residence and event space is one of the deadliest building fires in the United States in the last 50 years. Although the fire's current death toll of 36 puts it seventh on the list, the number of victims is expected to grow — likely pushing it higher. 
 
 Below are the 10 deadliest building fires of the past 50 years. 
 
 1. World Trade Center, New York City: Sept. 11, 2001 — 2,753 Killed 
 
 People walk in the street where the World Trade Center buildings collapsed in September 2001. Mario Tama / Getty Images 
 
 A day that will live in infamy. The World Trade Center was the worst terrorist attack in United States history. The crashing of two jetliners into the World Trade Center Buildings, perpetrated by the terrorist group al-Qaeda, killed 2,753 people in New York City. Though the initial impact of the plane and building collapse killed many, the fires were deadly as well and continued for 99 days after 9/11. Tens of thousands of people have developed illnesses, some of them terminal, because of exposure to toxins and poisons from the site. The attack led to the war in Afghanistan, which has continued for 15 years. 
 
 2. Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City: April 19, 1995 — 168 Killed 
 
 The north side of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City shows the devastation caused by a car bomb that detonated on April 19, 1995. Bob Daemmrich / AFP/Getty Images file 
 
 More than 20 years ago, a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people — including children. Now known as the Oklahoma City Bombing, it was the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil until 9/11 and the worst act of domestic terrorism in the country's history. Many died from the ensuing fire and from smoke inhalation — almost 40 percent of the victims who died or were injured suffered from the latter, according to the Oklahoma Department of Health. Timothy McVeigh, an anti-government militant, set off the explosives and was put to death by lethal injection in 2001. His co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, is serving multiple life sentences in a Colorado federal penitentiary. 
 
 3. Beverly Hills Supper Club, South Gate, Kentucky: May 28, 1977 — 165 Killed 
 
 The Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky., lies in rubble May 29, 1977, after a fire killed more than 200 people. AP 
 
 More than 3,000 people were at the Beverly Hills Supper Club when a fire started in the "Zebra room," according to the Center for Fire Research, a department of the National Bureau of Standards. Most were able to escape, but 165 were killed inside the club. The fire fed through an interior corridor and spread throughout the club. At the time, it was the deadliest fire in more than 30 years. 
 
 Related: Former Occupant of Warehouse Said Building Was 'Sketchy' and 'Unsafe' 
 
 4. The Station Nightclub, West Warwick, Rhode Island: Feb. 20, 2003 — 100 Killed 
 
 A firefighter grieves at the scene of a deadly fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, in February 2003. Elise Amendola / AP 
 
 The Station nightclub blaze — the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history, according to the National Fire Protection Association — killed 100 people and led the NFPA to create code provisions for sprinklers and crowd management in similar venues. Hundreds of people had gone to the nightclub to see the band Great White, whose pyrotechnics display caused the inferno that engulfed the club in less than six minutes. The band's manager and the nightclub owner were sentenced to 15 years in prison, although both were granted parole in 2008, The Associated Press reported. 
 
 5. Happy Land Social Club, Bronx, New York: March 25, 1990 — 87 Killed 
 
 An arson fire at the Happy Land social club killed 87 people in 1990 in the Bronx, AP 
 
 A spurned boyfriend, unemployed Cuban refugee Julio Gonzalez, set the Happy Land social club in the Bronx ablaze after getting into an argument with his girlfriend, who worked there, according to NBC New York. He was kicked out of the club and returned after 3 a.m. with gasoline and matches. He lit the guest exit on fire and pulled the metal front gate closed. Eighty-seven people died within minutes. It was the deadliest blaze in the city's history since the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire in 1911, exactly 79 years earlier. 
 
 6. MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas: Nov. 21, 1980 — 84 Killed 
 
 A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas killed at least 80 people in November 1980. AP 
 
 The MGM Grand Hotel and Casino fire, which is considered the second deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history, killed 84 people and injured more than 700 others. According to the Clark County Fire Department's report, the source was an electrical fire in the Deli restaurant. Within six minutes of its discovery, the fire had started to spread at 15 to 19 feet per second because of a "flashover" that quickly ate plastic ornamental fixtures, wall coverings, furniture and other combustibles. 
 
 7. 'The Ghost Ship,' Oakland, California: Dec. 3, 2016 — 36 Killed (number expected to grow) 
 
 Firefighters battle a fire in Oakland, California, that killed at least 30 people Saturday. David Butow/Redux / Redux Pictures 
 
 The death toll of the warehouse fire in Oakland has climbed to at least 36 people, with more missing and expected to be added to the list. It is the deadliest fire in Oakland history. The interior of the building, known as "The Ghost Ship," was filled with combustible wooden objects and didn't have a sprinkler system. Many people were trapped on the second floor during a party, as the staircase — which was built of wooden pallets — was quickly swallowed by the fire. People were illegally living in the unsanctioned art collective, as well. 
 
 8. UpStairs Lounge, New Orleans: June 24, 1973 — 32 Killed 
 
 A fire at the UpStairs bar in New Orleans killed 32 people in June 1973. AP file 
 
 An unknown arsonist set fire to a New Orleans gay bar in 1972, killing 32 people. It was considered the deadliest attack on an LGBT space until the massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, this year. The arsonist doused the stairwell into the bar with lighter fluid and threw a lighted torch to ignite the fire. The entire bar was alight in minutes. Many people died because the building didn't follow proper fire safety measures and the only emergency exit wasn't clearly marked, according to New Orleans Historical, a history project created by the University of New Orleans and Tulane University. 
 
 PHOTOS: Oakland Warehouse Fire Kills Several at Dance Party 
 
 9. Imperial Foods Chicken Processing Plant, Hamlet, North Carolina: Sept. 3, 1991 — 25 Killed 
 
 A blocked door contributed to the number of deaths in the Imperial chicken plant fire, which killed 25 people in Hamlet, North Carolina, in 1991. U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration 
 
 According to report by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the fire at the Imperial Foods Chicken Processing Plant killed 25 people and injured 54 others in September 1991. The conveyor of a hydraulic line on one of the plant's cookers burst, which ejected hydraulic fluid that burst into flames because of the plumes of heating gas expelled by a cooking vat. This created a fireball, and spread smoke rapidly, confusing those people inside. Many of the exit doors were locked, causing many people to hide in a cooler or to seek other exits. The toxic gas killed many of those trying to escape. 
 
 10. House fire in Charleston, West Virginia: March 24, 2012 — Killed 9 
 
 Authorities and investigators at the scene of a house fire that killed nine people in Charleston, West Virginia, in March 2012. AP - file 
 
 A house fire in Charleston, West Virginia, left nine dead — seven of them were children between the ages of one and eight. The home had only one smoke alarm that was not properly installed, according to NBC affiliate WSAZ. All were sleeping at the time of the early morning fire and likely died from smoke inhalation. Fire officials were never able to determine the cause of the blaze, but they did not believe it was suspicious.
– A New York City hotel security director didn't want to have to work so hard—so fire department sources tell the New York Daily News that he set fires to close down the very buildings he was protecting, so he could hang out in a comp room and drink. Mariano Barbosa, 30, has been arrested for alleged arson; court papers say Barbosa set his first fire at the Soho Grand Hotel, using bedding to fuel the fire. That was one of eight fires he allegedly set in four years of work at the Soho Grand and the Yotel, the New York Times reports; the fires were reportedly in halls, stairs, and exits, boosting damage. Fire officials tell the Times that Barbosa wanted to cut business at the hotels, thus making his job easier. "He desired that the incidents would be blamed on the clientele, and if that was the case maybe they would curtail the parties, and the venues would be more manageable," one official says. Interestingly, just last year, he got an award from the Yotel: a four-day trip to Las Vegas, his wife says. She says he would sleep in complimentary rooms in order to be there for the next shift. "This is a slap in the face," she says. "I don’t understand how all of the sudden he’s the bad guy."