Junior Pennsylvania Firefighter Among Three Charged With Arson

KENA VERNON
WNEP
Reprinted with Permission

Three teenagers, including one who is a junior firefighter, have confessed to setting a garage on fire in Northumberland County, according to police.


The fire over the weekend also damaged nearby homes.

The teens from Shamokin are 13,14, and 16 years old. Police said on Sunday they used a piece of paper to set fire to the garage, putting people and their properties in danger. Now they all face felony charges.

The garage on East Sunbury Street in Shamokin was destroyed and surrounding homes had heat damage. Police said the three teens are to blame. The 14 year old is a junior firefighter.

Paul Sickora is the caretaker of First United Methodist Church just a few feet from the fire. He said the flames worried him.

"All of these buildings are old and are so close together. So you have to be concerned if one house catches on fire is it going to spread to the rest of the homes," Sickora said.

Investigators said the three teens started the fire in the back of the garage and it spread quickly through all three stories.

Investigators said the teens were questioned shortly after the flames broke out and they confessed to setting the fire. They all now face arson and other related charges.

Neighbor David Kaleta lives nearby and can't believe teens are responsible for the garage fire. "It's a little shocking. It's scary there was an arson fire that close," Kaleta said.

Police said no one was hurt in the fire.

The three teens will now face charges in juvenile court.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on March 16, 2011 at 11:31am
Permalink Reply by rob jones on March 16, 2011 at 11:45am
i used to argue with you about this stuff jack but there are bad apples in the bunch, we have our share but what needs to be done is strict background checks drug and alchohol screening along with phych testing on viable applicants. far too many just let them come in with a simple background check. here in western pa we have our troubles but we have now strict policies in place to prevent and detect things like this before they happen. we took that step 4 years ago when i joined.
Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on March 16, 2011 at 12:04pm
Rob,

Yes, I remember. But my point is not to pick on anyone but to point out that this is a serious and almost exclusively a volunteer issue. Yet there will be those that will see this as an attack (which makes me question the reason(s) for their insecurities.)

Thorough background checks and stringent "hiring" criteria are essential in eliminating firefighter arson in the volunteer ranks. Making the argument that it's too costly, time consuming or effectively reduces the pool of qualified (read: interested) candidates is hollow at best and at worst passively encourages the most undesirable to apply.
Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on March 16, 2011 at 12:44pm


Perhaps it's appropriate for "Junior Firefighters" to see the outcome of fire and why we try to prevent fires in the first place? A trip to the coroners office might be in order. Or... a trip to the local burn unit so the kids can watch debridement of the burns...

Tough love...

Note: This is not a real corpse, but a hollywood mannequin. It does get the point across.
Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on March 16, 2011 at 1:25pm
Mike, without that smell it loses a LOT.
Permalink Reply by Wade Seely on March 16, 2011 at 3:20pm
Jack,

I agree, and that is one smell you will never forget
Permalink Reply by Fireman Larry on March 16, 2011 at 5:05pm
hey Mike, email them the picture... Show it to them, personally, I don't want to see this crap anymore... But for some reason, you post the pic's way too much...
Permalink Reply by abe yerdon on March 16, 2011 at 6:38pm
This is a hard thing to go thru in a fire department no matter how young the member. It happened in our fire department long before i joined and it still hampers our recruiting. The department used have ample members for a small voluteer FD but now we run with 12 active members and are lucky if we get eight on a call. Thank god for mutual aid.
good luck
PS i saw the picture of the person that was posted. My second fire i was ever on we lost 8 people 4 kids 4 adults, not one picture left the scene, except on police cameras, of the deceased, out of respect for the dead.
Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on March 16, 2011 at 8:31pm
Guys, read Mike's post again, especially the LAST line.
I'll help you out;
"Note: This is not a real corpse, but a hollywood mannequin. It does get the point across."
Permalink Reply by ryanhubble on March 16, 2011 at 8:58pm
i hope that they learned there lesson that when you let the dragon out its had to stop
Permalink Reply by joemac on March 17, 2011 at 1:00pm
Maybe the fact that there are more vollies in Pennsylvania ( I read it on the Interwebz, so it must be true), there would be a higher number of firefighters/arsonists. The math would suggest so.

On the other hand, it may be that the Pennsylvanians who aren't stupid enough to be arsonists are smarter than the average bear, and so can catch the arsonists more often than those in other states.

Sorry, just my feeble attempt at defending the honour of The Commonwealth.

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