Police: Pittsburgh man set fire to 8 portable toilets on North Shore
A Pittsburgh man was arrested and accused of setting eight portable toilets on fire early Monday morning on the North Shore, public safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz said.
The toilets were placed near the intersection of Tony Dorsett Drive and West General Robinson Street. Seven of them burned to the ground and an eighth was damaged to the point it is not usable, Cruz said.
The fires were put out, and authorities arrested Kevin Bankhead, 31, and charged him with two counts of felony criminal mischief and summary charges of arson and defiant trespass, Cruz said.
The stench from the fire lingered in the air Monday afternoon on Tony Dorsett Drive.
Blackened debris littered the sidewalk where the seven melted toilets once stood and the one that was damaged but not destroyed was missing most of its side wall. Beer and pop cans were among the debris, along with portions of charred toilet paper.
Bankhead was identified as the culprit by a witness to the fire, according to a criminal complaint.
Police found him sitting on a ledge directly above a no trespassing sign at the Alco Gold 1A parking lot.
When asked by police about the fires, Bankhead said, “It wasn’t on purpose,” according to the complaint.
Approved Toilet Rental, the owner of the portable toilets, told police the fire did about $6,400 in damage. A fence adjacent to the toilets also had about $2,000 in damage, police said in the complaint.
Det. Michael Burns of the city’s Fire Investigation Unit determined the fire was intentionally set with something like a lighter or match.
A blue lighter was recovered from Bankhead when he was arrested, police said.
Tom Davidson is a TribLive news editor. He has been a journalist in Western Pennsylvania for more than 25 years. He can be reached at tdavidson@triblive.com.
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