By Margaret Harding
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review
ELIZABETH TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A volunteer firefighter told police he was depressed when he started a fire in his Elizabeth Township home, according to charges filed against him by Allegheny County police.
Police on Monday charged Jeremy Zink, 26, with multiple counts of arson and recklessly endangering another person in the Dec. 14 fire a two-story home on Weigles Hill Road.
Zink, a member of the Blaine Hill Volunteer Fire Co. in Elizabeth Township, admitted to investigators he “became depressed” and set a pizza box on fire in a suicide attempt, the criminal complaint said. He said he thought he had extinguished the fire in a bathtub by putting a bucket over the burning box, the complaint said.
Blaine Hill suspended Zink in December for “personal issues,” fire Chief Brian Mason said.
Zink was hired as a part-time telecommunications officer by Allegheny County in November 2010, county spokeswoman Amie Downs said. He has been suspended without pay.
The complaint accuses Zink of endangering the firefighters from Blaine Hill and Forward and Elizabeth Township police officers who responded to the fire.
Zink is in the county jail on $100,000 bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 18.
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