Arnold firefighter charged after 4 weekend arsons in Westmoreland County

WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — An Arnold firefighter has been arrested in connection to a series of arsons in Westmoreland County.

>>> Four fires in Westmoreland County over weekend under investigation by state fire marshal

Pennsylvania State Police said the fire marshal unit was requested to investigate a series of four suspicious fires that happened over the weekend in New Kensington and Arnold.

The suspect, Andrew Bischof, was arrested on Wednesday evening.

Bischof is charged with arson, aggravated arson, causing or risking catastrophe, criminal mischief, burglary and criminal trespass. All of the charges are felonies.

Four residential structure fires happened between Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 in Arnold and New Kensington.

While firefighters were working to extinguish one of the fires on Sunday at Bichof’s grandmother’s house, the rear deck of the home collapsed. One firefighter was injured when that deck collapsed. He was taken to the hospital but has been released. Another firefighter was treated on scene.

State police said the investigation showed Bischof left the scene of a fire he set and then responded back to the scene with the Arnold Volunteer Fire Department.

Neighbors tell Channel 11 the whole thing is a shock.

“Unless he had some sort of beef with his grandmother, but still. Why would you want to take out your own family?” said Robert Cravener who lives nearby.

Channel 11 News spoke exclusively with Arnold Fire Chief Eric Gartley.

“Just absolutely shocked that he’d betray our trust like that. We weren’t aware that he had been at the locations prior to responding with us but he did respond to multiple fires over the weekend,” Gartley said.

Chris O’Leath, the spokesperson with the Arnold Volunteer Fire Department No. 2 told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek the incident is appalling.

“We operate on public trust, and to have somebody that we bring into the organization violate that trust, it looks bad on all of us,” O’Leath said.

O’Leath said the department did its due diligence before bringing Bischof on as a volunteer firefighter.

He was only on the job for five days before he allegedly set the first fire.

Nothing came up on a background check that would have made anyone believe he would do something like this. “There were no red flags. There were no indications,” O’Leath said.

However, Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek learned Bischof was released from the Kinloch Volunteer Fire Department more than three years ago when Bischof was a junior firefighter. That department said he was released after he was harassing another one of its members. At the time, Kinloch was under the age of 18.

“Those juvenile records, those aren’t subject to any background checks that we would perform,” O’Leath said.

Cravener said it’s a weekend this community will not soon forget.

“It was just crazy. To have that all within the span of two days? It was overwhelming,” he said.

Bischof was arraigned and taken to Westmoreland County Prison. He was denied bail.

His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 12.

The investigation is ongoing.

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