Man accused of starting house fire in Etna, Pennsylvania

Editor's note: A garage door was torn off and struck the windshield on the officer's side of a Millvale Volunteer Fire Company ladder truck. The driver, who was standing near the front bumper, ran when he heard the explosion and was not injured, Millvale Fire Chief Karl Cavanaugh said.

Megan Guza

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

(TNS)

June 12 — A fire that ravaged several properties on Etna on Tuesday was allegedly started by one of the men who lived there, according to charges filed Wednesday.

Elmer Lewis, 74, is charged with multiple counts of arson and criminal mischief in connection with the fire, which injured a resident and a firefighter.

Two properties were involved, including a two-unit home on the west end of Vilsack Street. The other was a detached house on top of several garages that sat next to the two-unit building. The same owner owns all of the affected properties, police said.

Lewis lived in one of the rental units and two of the three tenants in the other unit were home at the time of the fire.

One of those tenants told investigators he started smelling gasoline around 11:30 a.m. and thought the smell might spread, according to the criminal complaint against Lewis. He said he had just walked to his back porch when he heard an explosion.

The tenant said he looked out the window of his home and saw the other half of the building on fire, according to the complaint. He said he walked up to Lewis' door and kicked it down, at which point, he said, Lewis quietly came out, retrieved his dog from his car and began to move away.

A witness told police that Lewis admitted to starting the fire, commenting that “the landlord was messing with me.” Lewis reportedly remarked several times during an interview with police that he was the one who started the fire. He presented a receipt for the gas he said he bought at a 7-Eleven on Mont-Royal Boulevard.

Investigators said an arson dog detected accelerants on the first floor of Lewis' unit, near the stairs to the second floor. The dog also detected an accelerant in a nearby garage also rented by Lewis. The fire inside the garage tore off the garage door, which shattered the windshield of the responding fire truck.

Lewis' neighbor was burned on the arm when he kicked in Lewis' door, and a firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion.

Lewis was being held without bail Wednesday, with a district judge calling him a “threat to the victim, witnesses and the community” in court records. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 20.

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