Pa. 911 Dispatcher and Volunteer Firefighter Is Charged With Arson

Jan. 10--A man employed as a 911 dispatcher and volunteer firefighter was arrested on arson charges Monday after police said he admitted to setting fire to a home he rented during a suicide attempt in mid-December.

Jeremy Robert Zink, 26, was arraigned Monday afternoon on charges of seven counts of arson of varying degrees, three counts of reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and causing or risking catastrophe.

His address was listed as Clairton, though police said he also rented a house in Elizabeth.

In a criminal complaint, county police said the home Mr. Zink rented, located in the 100 bock of Weigles Hill Rod in Elizabeth, caught fire on the evening of Dec. 14. As as a member of the Blaine Hill Volunteer Fire Department, Mr. Zink was paged to the scene.

A deputy fire marshal investigated and found that the fire had been set on the second floor, the result of "an open flame applied to ... combustible material," the complaint said.

Mr. Zink initially told investigators that he was at the Dollar General store in Clairton and visiting his stepmother when the fire started.

Police learned later from his stepmother that he knew his house was on fire when he received a page, even though the address was not given in the message. He also was due to be on shift at the 911 center, but said he had forgotten.

Under a polygraph, police said he "consistently displayed deception with regard to fire related questions."

According to the complaint, he conceded later that he had gone to the house to retrieve his high school diploma and felt depressed and suicidal. When he could not find a knife, he decided he would set himself on fire.

He lit a pizza box on fire with the stove, but then changed his mind.

He told police he then took the burning box to the upstairs bathroom with the intention of extinguishing it with water, but there was no running water in the house. He said he put a plastic bucket over the box, believing he had squelched it, and left the house.

Mr. Zink remained in the Allegheny County Jail this morning in lieu of $100,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 18.

Moriah Balingit: [email protected] or 412-263-2533.

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