Firefighters, ambulance personnel and police were called to a Pike Township residence today shortly after midnight for a report of a man who had set his house on fire and was walking on his property randomly firing a gun.
The first troopers who arrived at the scene in the 400 block of Oysterdale Road found the man's 17-year-old daughter hiding in the nearby woods unharmed.
According to police:
She told them that she saw her father go back into the burning house and moments later heard a gunshot. She hadn't seen him come out.
The man's wife said that he had an arsenal in the house.
About 1 a.m. troopers were setting up a perimeter around the house, which was fully engulfed in flames that could be seen for miles.
Firefighters were being kept back as a safety precaution.
After the initial call, state police said they were miles away and asked for assistance from municipal police through the Berks County Communications center.
Officers from Colebrookdale, Amity and Oley township were responding by 12:30.
Before police arrived, a resident was on the phone with Berks dispatchers and reported that the man had pointed the gun at her.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
