Connellsville fire ruled arson
CONNELLSVILLE – Fire investigators have determined someone intentionally set a late Tuesday afternoon blaze that severely damaged a vacant apartment and nearby occupied home on North Arch Street. “It’s arson,” said Connellsville Fire Chief Joe Childs after spending nearly 30 minutes digging through the rubble left by the fire.
The apartment has been unoccupied for about six months, according to Childs.
The previous renters apparently left a chair in the downstairs area and a bed on the second floor. It was the chair that nearby homeowner Melissa Helms saw burning, and she alerted Fayette County 911.
Childs said the fire was confined to the first floor of the apartment, but flames and heat caused the siding on the Helms home to buckle and melt.
For a brief time officials thought the fire might have been the result of an electrical malfunction, but Allegheny Power workers were called to the scene and determined the electricity had been shut off.
Childs said that no one was seen entering or exiting the vacant apartment.
City police department fire investigator Sgt. Vincent Traynor said that he will advise the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) of the incident.
In February, the ATF was called in to assist the police department in investigating the rash of arsons that have plagued the city since October.
The first fire took place on the city’s South Side, in an abandoned home at 914 S. Pittsburgh St. The early morning blaze also damaged a neighboring home where the homeowner was in bed. No one was injured. Two weeks later, fire destroyed an unoccupied home at 110 Green St.
On Nov. 14, several families residing in an East Washington Avenue apartment building were displaced when a fire was set outside an elderly woman’s apartment. It was the third fire in a two-block radius.
A fourth arson in the same area took place on New Year’s Eve. The unoccupied home at 913 Aetna St. sustained moderate damage to its downstairs hallway and a stairway to the second floor.
Three fires were set in a five-day period in February. On Feb. 19, firefighters were called to extinguish a small fire that had been set on a windowsill of an abandoned South Pittsburgh Street building, less than a block from the fire scene the next day.
On Feb. 20, the Burn’s Drug Store and an adjacent vacant apartment building were destroyed after someone broke into the padlocked apartment building and set two separate fires.
A Feb. 24 fire was deliberately set at the rear of Mancuso’s Barber Shop along East Crawford Avenue. An on-duty police officer spotted the smoke and was able to extinguish the fire, leaving only minimal damage to a rear door.
Police have declined to comment whether one person or several people are committing the arsons.
Connellsville Police Chief Stephen Cooper could not be reached for comment.