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Neighbors and Home Owner React After Firefighter Arrested for Arson

WILKES-BARRE TOWNSHIP — The son of a fire chief is in trouble, accused of torching a home. The fire just before Christmas left one man homeless and damage...

WILKES-BARRE TOWNSHIP -- The son of a fire chief is in trouble, accused of torching a home. The fire just before Christmas left one man homeless and damaged two buildings.

Richard Hart, 18, said nothing after his arrest on arson and burglary charges Friday.

Hart is a Wilkes-Barre Township firefighter and the son of the Wilkes-Barre Township fire chief.

"I mean, when you have somebody you're supposed to trust and their son is going out and setting fires and stuff? I mean that's not good. You trust these people, said Aaron Newhart, of Wilkes-Barre Township.

"Kind of crazy, you expect it would be different, usually a fire chief's kid is running around with his dad. I don't know. You wouldn't really expect it from him,” said one neighbor, who did not want to reveal his identity.

According to court papers, it was early on December 21 when Hart and a friend ordered pizza at Hart’s home in Wilkes-Barre Township. Hart says he left and walked to a nearby McDonalds for an iced coffee. It was closed. He started home and then said he saw a cat that looked like his grandmother's cat. He followed it into a property on Casey Avenue, saw a gas can, kicked it twice, then intentionally dropped his lit cigar to start a fire. He walked home, ate two slices of pizza, and went to sleep. Then, when his fire pager went off, Hart said he woke up and went to fight the fire he started.

The blaze spread and badly damaged two houses on Casey Avenue. A man living in one as a renter was chased out.

"Didn't expect that, the fire chief's son, unbelievable. People would do anything for kicks,” said Raymond Wojtowicz of Wilkes-Bare Township.

Wojtowicz's childhood home was one destroyed by the fire. He says it will have to be torn down.

"I feel bad about it, ripping the house down. There's so much sentimental value. It's like my mother and father's. My mother and father lived there. That's where they started their Mom and Pop's Pierogies. They made Mom and Pop's Pierogies. And then I made Mom and Pop's Pierogies."

This is just the latest controversy surrounding a member of the Wilkes-Barre Township Fire Department. Former Fire Chief John Yuknavich was in and out of court for DUI and PFA cases and served time for stealing $45,000 from the fire department.

"I don't know what to say anymore. It's so corrupt. Everything is corrupt anymore,” Wojtowicz.

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