Fayette battles arsons
For many years, Fayette County authorities have struggled with the problem of arsons, from the county’s larger towns to the most sparsely populated townships. The problem has been made ever more apparent in Connellsville, where arsonists have been blamed for 27 fires since October 2003.
Fayette County for several years has had one of the highest arson rates of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
And, according to the state’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), Fayette was near the top again last year. The data, published online by the state by year, shows that Fayette had 101 arsons in 2004.
The county is eclipsed in the number of arsons by Allegheny County (284), Bucks County (110) and Luzerne County (145), but all of those counties have significantly greater populations than Fayette, which has 148,644 residents, according to the 2000 Census.
Philadelphia probably has a higher arson rate, too, but their data is not published with the UCRs because of a dispute between firefighters and police, said state police spokesman Jack Lewis.
The UCR data is culled from state and municipal departments. Police submit tallies that detail the number of a certain offense, arrest statistics and other demographic information.
Until this year, submitting the reports was voluntary, Lewis said, but now it has become mandatory for each department to file. Even though the process was voluntary, Lewis estimated that “the numbers we have (on the UCRs) would be good for more than 90 percent of the population.”
He also said most of the major city departments and the state police consistently file UCRs.
Fayette’s 2004 arson rate far exceeds the number of arsons recorded in like-sized counties. Schuylkill, in eastern Pennsylvania, listed only 32 arsons. Cambria listed 23 arsons throughout the year. Both Schuylkill and Cambria are within 3,000 of Fayette’s population.
Fayette’s 101 arsons caused $992,718 in damage, according to the UCR. State police were responsible for investigating 76 of those arson cases. The most arsons in Fayette occurred in June and November, when there were 16 each month.
The total number of arsons actually went down between 2004 and 2003, when 125 arsons were listed on the UCR.
The actual number of arsons in 2003 and 2004 probably is higher than the totals reported on the year-end UCR summaries, however, because in 2003, Connellsville, Uniontown and Masontown listed no arsons.
And, in 2004, Connellsville listed only 11 and Uniontown only two, while Masontown listed none, according to the UCR.
Why so many?
Uniontown Police Chief Kyle Sneddon and city Fire Chief Myron Nypaver estimate the city experiences 20 arsons a year, and last year continued the trend with 18.
Nypaver and his crews fight the fires while Sneddon and his department try to find the perpetrators, with the assistance of state police fire marshals.
Arsonists have been motivated by revenge, profit and even sexual arousal, but most of the fire starters in recent years have been juveniles, Sneddon said. He labels the fires they start as “juvenile malicious fires.”
Police made arrests in seven of the 2004 fires, and only one was an adult. Sneddon said four juveniles were charged with six arsons.
“We cleared almost 50 percent of the fires,” he said.
Some investigators attribute the frequency of the arsons to the area’s poor economic conditions. As businesses and homeowners have moved from the area, they’ve left behind vacant buildings that are ripe for arson.
Abandoned homes were the targets of many of the juvenile malicious fires, Sneddon said.
Connellsville police Sgt. Vincent Traynor, who has investigated the arson spree in the city, said he too sees a link between the local economy, the number of vacant buildings and the arson rate.
“We definitely have more vacant buildings than areas that have seen better economic times,” he said. “Some counties such as Allegheny and Westmoreland are able to tear down dilapidated structures to make way for new business.
“Unfortunately, Connellsville, Uniontown and Brownsville have seen a lot of businesses move out, and that translates into residents moving away. It leaves the communities with a lot of empty buildings that become prime targets for an arsonist.”
In the rash of Connellsville fires, though, the arsonists have targeted abandoned homes as well as several occupied structures, including a South Side apartment building and Burns Drug store on Crawford Avenue.
Experts give a variety of reasons for why people deliberately set fires.
In his years as both a policeman and a fireman, Sneddon said he’s seen many reasons why people resort to arson. Setting fires can be the fulfillment of a sexual fantasy and may be motivated by the need to be a hero or the need for adrenaline. It can also be for profit or revenge, Sneddon said.
Or, it can be for homicide, as was alleged in the case of Richard A. Saluga, a 30-year-old Uniontown man who pleaded no-contest to third-degree murder for setting a 2003 fire at an apartment building that killed a 76-year-old man in Fairchance.
Police alleged that Saluga was attempting to kill his wife, but it was William Mason who died in the Sept. 13, 2003, blaze, succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning.
But one of the most common reasons for intentionally setting fires that Sneddon has come up with in his years of experience is simply boredom. Juveniles with nothing better to do have been responsible for “a significant number of fires” in the city, he said.
Nypaver said most of the arsons in Uniontown have occurred in the Gallatin Avenue and East End areas.
He said about a dozen trash containers are set on fire every year, but they are not counted as arsons in police records because they do not burn structures. Instead, a trash container fire is classified as a criminal mischief incident.
Nypaver calls them “nuisance fires,” but they can spread to buildings and be signals of worse things to come. He said people who ignite trash bins might be starting “small to see what they can get away with.”
Homes, apartments and commercial buildings have been targeted, but Sneddon and Nypaver agree that the city’s problem with arsons is much less severe than what their counterparts in Connellsville are facing.
“We’ve been in their shoes and it’s no fun,” Sneddon said.
A past experience
In the late 1980s, Uniontown suffered a rash of arsons similar to what is happening in Connellsville.
It took a lot of combined work by city and state police and off-duty firefighters, but the people living in the Morgantown Street-area of the city, where the fires happened, played a big part in catching two men, Sneddon said.
“The neighborhood was outraged, and the neighbors started watching,” he said.
Eventually, a woman was able to place a suspect at the scene of a fire, after watching him go into a vacant house through a window and set a blaze. While the man was acquitted of some fires, Sneddon said police were able to secure convictions in others.
Uniontown’s investigation, much like Connellsville’s, involved local and state police, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and firefighters.
Sneddon said Uniontown used human surveillance and surveillance equipment provided by the federal government to help in solving the case.
“But unfortunately, when you have a coward setting fires, they’re hard to catch. They’re out there in the night sneaking around.”
The investigation, Sneddon said, was tiring.
“It almost consumed everything you did. Looking at it from a standpoint as a firefighter and an investigator (he was both) … it was probably one of the most exhausting things I’ve been involved in,” he said. “It was relentless work. We just kept the pressure on.”
Editor’s note: Fayette County long has been a hotbed for arson activity and has one of its cities embroiled in a high-profile arson investigation. This story is the first in a two-part series looking at the arson problem, its potential causes and the people fighting it.It’s a crime that has kept firefighters throughout Fayette County on alert and residents in some communities on edge.
Editor’s note: Herald-Standard staff writers Steve Ferris, Jennifer Harr and Patty Yauger contributed to this story.