State officials probe suspicious Hempfield woods fire

Officials are investigating a suspicious fire that caused minimal damage Tuesday on a wooded Hempfield hilltop.

Steve Kohl, deputy chief with the Midway-St. Clair Fire Department, said the state Bureau of Forestry will investigate the 5:30 p.m. blaze after firefighters discovered burning railroad ties, lighter fluid and a butane tank at the scene along Hunter Road extension.

According to firefighters, damage was limited to the railroad ties.

Kohl said six firefighters walked in to quell the flames because a fire truck couldn’t access the wooded area. They doused the fire with a hose stretched up a 60-foot cliff from below.

The hilltop is next to the Manor House Kitchens granite factory.

Mike Backus, who owns the 38-acre property, drove his backhoe on an old logging road to help the volunteers reach the fire.

He reported the fire when he spotted smoke as he was mowing the cabinet factory lawn.

“I ran down and saw the fire,” he said. “I called 911, and 10 minutes later, all these (firefighters) showed up.”

He said he saw no one enter the site who might have been responsible for the fire

“I didn’t have any idea how it started,” he said. “I was working here all afternoon, and they had to be watching me.”

An April 6 fire that burned more than an acre of a remote wooded section of Derry Ridge in Derry Township was “definitely arson,” said Brian Vinski, who works out of the Bureau of Forestry’s Forbes State Forest District office in Laughlintown.

Vinski believes the suspected Derry Township arsonist set at least four previous fires, including three in that same remote area, in the last three years.

He said evidence indicates the suspect drives an all-terrain vehicle to remote sites and sets fires.

There was no indication Tuesday if officials believe the Hempfield fire was related.