A deranged man walked into a Midtown hotel early Wednesday with a blowtorch and squeezed his way into an air duct where he lit his shoe on fire, cops said.
The bizarre ordeal began when a shirtless Juan Estella came into the Renaissance Hotel on W. 35th St. near Seventh Ave around 5 a.m. and began causing a disturbance, officials said.
As employees tried to wrangle him, the guy somehow shimmied his way into an air duct through a drop ceiling and began crawling around.
The manager called cops after he smelled rubber burning.
Police canvassed for Estrella, who has several burglary arrests in the past, and made voice contact on the 7th floor.
He had tried to make the sprinklers go off with a fire.
“He also set one of his shoes on fire,” an NYPD spokesman said.
He was removed — smeared in black soot — from the A/C unit a short time later, officials said. He was charged with burglary, arson and criminal trespass, and taken to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
Estrella was arrested four times in October for burglary. Some of the alleged crimes took place in a building where he lived, police sources said. He was evicted.