Click here for Greater Long Island newsletters. Click here to download the iPhone app.
Paul Lucia, 60, came back two hours later with a gas can, the DA said
The Islip Terrace man who set fire to Riley Fibbers in East Islip after staff asked him to leave has pleaded guilty to arson and now faces up to 10 years in prison, prosecutors announced.
Paul Lucia, 60, pleaded guilty Tuesday before Acting Supreme Court Justice Richard Horowitz to second-degree arson, third-degree arson and two counts of fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said. He is due back in court Nov. 13 for sentencing.
“The defendant admitted to intentionally setting fire to a local business, risking the lives of staff and patrons inside,” Tierney said.
Prosecutors said Lucia was a patron at Riley Fibbers Pub & Restaurant on Carleton Avenue about 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2025, when staff asked him to leave after he snapped a photo of an employee.
Lucia drove off in a white Jeep Patriot and returned about two hours later, around 7:30 p.m., with a gas can and a lighter, prosecutors said.
Surveillance video shows Lucia getting out of the Jeep and dumping liquid from the gas can near the restaurant’s rear entrance, according to the district attorney’s office. The entrance was open, and patrons and employees were standing in it at the time.
Flames broke out as Lucia walked back to the Jeep. Prosecutors said he tossed the gas can over a fence onto the neighboring property and drove away.
The fire damaged an exterior awning and the kitchen. The restaurant was evacuated, and there were no injuries reported.
Stolen plates, a gas can cap and a lighter
A witness at the scene gave police the license plate number of the Jeep. Those plates had been reported stolen a week before the fire, prosecutors said.
Suffolk Police Arson Squad detectives recovered the gas can’s cap from a flowerpot outside the bar and the gas can itself from the adjacent property. A certified accelerant-detection dog from the Suffolk County Fire Marshal’s Office alerted to ignitable liquids in several spots.
The next day, Suffolk Police spotted Lucia driving the white Jeep on Sunrise Highway and pulled him over. Officers arrested him and found the lighter used in the fire inside the vehicle, prosecutors said.
Closed during the holidays
Riley Fibbers closed temporarily after the fire, a blow ownership said came at a tough time.
“This wasn’t anything we ever expected to experience, and it weighs heavy on all of us — our staff, our regulars, and our entire East Islip community who’ve turned this place into so much more than a bar,” ownership wrote on Facebook at the time.
Related: Riley Fibbers fire set by patron after being kicked out, police say
Top: Facebook/Islip Fire Department and SCDA
Your Long Island news, delivered.
Subscribe to the GLI Newsletter — its free
