Investigators: Apartment fire likely started by child
CLIFTON HEIGHTS, PA. » Investigators say a fire at a Pennsylvania apartment complex that injured at least four people, including two firefighters, was probably sparked by a child playing with a lighter.
Clifton Heights Police Chief Tim Rockenbach tells KYW-TV it appears the Delaware County building caught fire Monday after a 5-year-old set a piece of paper on fire then panicked and threw it under a bed.
Officials say two women had to jump from windows to escape the flames and two children were dropped to safety. The women suffered injuries that were not lifethreatening, and the children appeared unharmed.
Two firefighters suffered minor injuries.
Officials with the American Red Cross say 150 people were displaced by the fire.
Dollar store robber dies up employees, takes $5,000, phones
PHILADELPHIA » Philadelphia police say a dollar store robber zip-tied the wrists of two employees before getting away with $5,000 and some cellphones.
Police Chief Inspector Scott Small says the Family Dollar Store in the city’s Mayfair section was robbed just after Monday’s 11 p.m. closing time. The robber, who had a gun, hid in the store until the employees started locking up for the night.
That’s when police say he forced both employees into the store’s restroom, bound their wrists and locked them inside.
Police say the thief got out through a back door and apparently tried to destroy the store’s surveillance system, but didn’t succeed.
Police say the employees were not badly hurt.
Lehigh suspends 2 frats over alcohol, warns 2 others
BETHLEHEM, PA. » Lehigh University has temporarily suspended two fraternities and warned two others they could face discipline for unspecified alcohol-related incidents.
The eastern Pennsylvania school says Phi Kappa Theta and Delta Chi are barred from organized activities and “impromptu social gatherings” while the school’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs investigates the incidents, which allegedly occurred during the first week of the fall semester.
Alpha Tau Omega and Kappa Alpha were issued warnings.
None of the fraternities has commented on the actions.
Vice Provost of Student Affairs Ricardo Hall says the school had more police and alcohol-related events this fall than last fall, and that Greek social events contributed to the problem.
Lehigh disbanded another fraternity, Kappa Sigma, through July 2019. That happened two months ago after a spate of alcohol-related issues.
Vigil held for missing man, though police mum on remains
CURWENSVILLE, PA. » Friends and family of a man reported missing last month held a vigil for him even though police have yet to confirm that remains found in a wooded area of west-central Pennsylvania are his.
Nineteen-year-old Chase Anderson’s loved ones gathers at Irvin Park in Curwensville to remember him Sunday night.
The remains were found in Pike Township, about 100 miles (160.9 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
Clearfield County Coroner Mike Morris says Dennis Dirkmaat, a forensic anthropologist from Mercyhurst University is assisting the investigation. Dirkmaat is typically involved when human remains are badly decomposed or in a condition that would otherwise make them difficult to identify.
Police say they have people in custody in connection with the still-unidentified remains, but warned that rumors can complicate their investigation.
Vacant resort, searched in sniper manhunt, burns in Poconos
STROUDSBURG, PA. » A vacant resort in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains that had been searched during a 48-day manhunt for a sniper who killed a state trooper has burned.
Monroe County authorities say the blaze destroyed part of the former Penn Hills Resort in Stroud Township.
The fire was reported Monday evening and was under control about three hours later.
The resort opened in the 1940s and closed about a decade ago. It was in the headlines when state police and other agencies searched for Eric Frein after one trooper was slain and another wounded by sniper fire outside their Blooming Grove barracks in September 2014. Frein has since been convicted and sentenced to death.
The fire damaged one building at the resort. Its cause wasn’t immediately clear.