Chief refutes reports
CONNELLSVILLE – The city’s police chief said investigators have not labeled any member of the city or volunteer fire company as a suspect in the recent suspicious and arson-related fires that have taken place over the past months. Instead, said Connellsville police Chief Stephen Cooper, the city department and New Haven Hose Co., volunteer fire department, firefighters are being lauded for their continued efforts to keep residents safe and for their assistance in the ongoing investigations.
“They are risking their lives every time there is a fire,” said Cooper. “In addition to their responsibility to protect lives and property, they are also helping us in our investigations by preserving evidence at the scenes.”
Cooper’s comments were prompted after media outlets reported that city fire Chief Joe Childs speculated local firefighters were being considered as suspects by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), who has partnered with local authorities to solve the cases, because the agency was not forthcoming in sharing investigation results.
Childs, the long-time fire chief of the two organizations, refuted the account and said that he did not state to the reporters that those under his command might be linked to any of the arson-related incidents.
“I do not believe that any member of the city department or New Haven is a suspect, nor would I make that statement,” said Childs on Friday. “(The statement) is a lie.”
Childs did confirm that he was unable to offer any information to the reporter as to the course being conducted in connection with the Wednesday fire that gutted a shuttered South Pittsburgh Street shoe store, but that the responsibility of the fire departments is to fight the fire, not oversee the investigation.
The blaze was listed Friday as being intentionally set.
Since Wednesday’s fire, Childs said that most of his time has been spent working side by side with the city police force, ATF and state fire marshals to determine the cause of the fire and at no time did he discuss the investigation.
“I’m there to help determine the cause of the fire; that’s it,” he said.
“I’ve never asked the ATF about an investigation; if they want me to know something they will tell me.”
Cooper said that it would be routine for officers to seek out the fire responders for relevant information during or after a fire, but that the course of the investigation or the identification of suspects is not made privy to the fire chief or anyone other than those closest to the case.
“We don’t share investigative information with (Childs) or anyone in the fire department,” said Cooper. “I know that Joe (Childs) understands that.”
Childs additionally denied that he informed the media outlets of the alleged location of an ATF office that has been set up to receive information from surveillance cameras placed on telephone poles throughout the city.
“It’s public information that there are or were cameras; do I have personal knowledge of their location? No, I don’t and I don’t know anything about an ATF office,” he said.
Cooper, meanwhile, declined to reveal what methods were being used to conduct the investigation or if the federal agency had set up a local branch to assist the police department.
James Tanda, ATF supervisory agent, also declined to elaborate on the investigations, tools being used or the other media accounts.
“I have said since the beginning of this investigation that ATF is not going to talk about suspects and we’re not going to talk about evidence because of the risk of compromising the integrity of our investigation,” he said. “If other people who are not involved in the investigation want to comment about what they think, they’re entitled to their opinion.
“I will not comment at all on the presence of cameras or any other investigative strategy that may be employed in a case such as this.
“ATF and Connellsville Police Department have made progress in this investigation and we continue to investigate each fire individually before making any conclusions that they are all linked.”