By Elizabeth Skrapits
The Citizens’ Voice
DALLAS, Pa. — An 18-year-old volunteer firefighter was one of three teenagers police allege deliberately set fire to a temporary classroom and broke a library window at Dallas High School.
Kristopher Brian Harger of Kingston, an ambulance driver for Dallas Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Inc., is being charged with arson and nine counts of criminal conspiracy. Two male juveniles also face charges.
Due to crowded conditions at the high school, the Dallas School Board is renting two modular classrooms for $927 a month apiece from Baltimore-based Williams Scotsman Inc. until a new building is complete.
According to arrest papers, Dallas Township police and fire officials from the Dallas and Kunkle departments responded to a structure fire at the high school around 11:43 p.m. on July 22. Dallas Township police Officer Mark Liparela learned Kris, a member of the Dallas fire company, had called it in. Liparela noticed Harger, whom he recognized as a volunteer ambulance driver, at the scene.
After extinguishing a fire in one of the modular classrooms, officials said the unit and equipment in it sustained heavy smoke damage and some fire damage. State Police Fire Marshal Ronald Jarocha later determined the fire had been started by placing combustible materials around a desk, dousing them in an ignitable liquid and igniting them.
Dallas fire Chief Harry Vivian and Liparela discovered a blue medical glove behind the burnt modular. At the high school building nearby, the two officials noticed a library window was smashed and saw four empty bottles lying on the grass. Two plastic bottles contained a liquid that smelled like gasoline, and the other two bottles were glass and contained rags that smelled like gasoline. They believed the bottles were part of a failed attempt to set a fire inside the school.
Harger told police the blue glove was his. He went to the police station for an interview at 2:35 a.m. July 23, during which he admitted being involved in setting the fire.
One of the juveniles said, during an interview with police, that Harger had been asking him and another boy to start a fire or cause an accident. The conversation came up while the three were hanging out at the Kingston Township ambulance garage. The teenager said Harger told him he was bored and wanted some action.
On July 22, Harger picked the teen up at Wayne’s World. After rejecting the idea of an accident because someone might get killed or a house fire because someone could get hurt, Harger decided to start a fire at Dallas High School because no one would be there, police said.
At the fire station, Harger picked up two bottles of gas, blue disposable gloves and white towels, and showed the teenager how to make Molotov cocktails, according to police. Harger picked up the other teenager, then dropped both of them off at Pear Tree Lane. The two teens tried to set fire to the high school, but the lit rag went out as soon as they threw the bottles.
Instead, Harger directed the teens to the modular unit. The two boys opened its back door, piled papers, books, files and tissues on the floor, dumped gas on it and set it on fire, police said. Harger picked them up, then drove through the parking lot several times to ensure the fire was lit, police said.
Harger was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge James Tupper on Monday and released on $25,000 unsecured bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 13 at 10 a.m.
Copyright 2009