She came for some luck:
Fire marshals said the fire started around 6:40 p.m., when a woman visited a man in the building and paid him $300 to perform a voodoo ceremony to bring her good luck.
Unfortunately the occasion was ill-omened:
A city official told the AP that the ceremony involved the man and woman having sex in a bed surrounded by candles. Those candles set fire to the linens and clothes on the floor, the FDNY said. But instead of calling 911, the man conducting the ceremony tried in vain to douse the flames with water.
So not only he was a terrible voodoo priest, he also had poor crisis management skills. I’ll bet he was a lousy lay too, and he probably gave her crabs. All around a bad time! Full story here.