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Firefighter Jailed Following Armed Robbery Attempt

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Career-Altering Decision Fails

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, FIREFIGHTER Joseph Caimi, 31, is in jail today following a botched armed robbery attempt in a convenience market.

City police said Joseph Caimi, 31, tried to rob a Uni-Mart store on Brownsville Road in Carrick on Wednesday night, but a clerk grabbed Caimi's gun and the firefighter hit his head on a store counter in the ensuing struggle.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tells what happened:

(The clerk) behind the counter was Tom Sayenga, who took matters into his own hands.

Police said Mr. Sayenga told them that as he was handing money over to the gunman, he grabbed the man's gun with his free hand and "piledrived" his face into the counter. Mr. Sayenga chambered a round in the gun and pointed the gun at the man and ordered him to leave, according to Pittsburgh robbery squad Detective Michael Chlystek.

Mr. Sayenga said the robbery suspect threw the money in the air and ran out of the store, leaving behind the gun, a 9 mm Beretta.

Later Wednesday, police arrested Joseph J. Caimi Jr., 31, a city firefighter, and charged him in the attempted robbery.

Police determined the gun was registered to Mr. Caimi and went to his house, in the 2200 block of Lucina Street, where they saw a man matching his description sitting with another man next door. Police asked Mr. Caimi if he owned any guns, and he said he used to own three, but sold them all. Asked when he last saw his Beretta, he said: "Today. I already know what you're here for, but I'm not saying anything. I already know why you're here," Detective Chlystek wrote.

Read the entire article HERE.

KDKA-TV filed this video report:

 

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Posted by on April 12, 2013 • Filed under: crime, current events, labor, News • Tagged: , ,

Naughty Firefighter Parade (Cont’d.)

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There's Always An Empty Cell Somewhere

AN ELBERT COUNTY, COLORADO, volunteer firefighter was arrested Tuesday and charged with setting  the  wildfire last June that caused the evacuation of the entire town of Elbert.  The Associated Press reports via the Star Herald:

Sheriff’s officials say Elbert Fire Protection District volunteer Alex J. Averette,19, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of charges including second-degree arson, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and second-degree criminal trespass. Bond was set at $50,000.

Averette is accused of starting the County Road 102 Fire north of Elbert on June 24. The fire burned hundreds of acres. Firefighting resources around the state were strained at the time because of other wildfires.

CBS Ch. 4 Denver has the detailed STORY HERE and also filed this video report:

 

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PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, FIREFIGHTER Martin Flora, 48, was arrested and arraigned yesterday (Wednesday) on charges of indecent assault, aggravated indecent assault, endangering the welfare of a child and unlawful contact with a minor.

WTAE-TV is reporting:

Flora faces felony charges that include indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children, and sexual offenses with a minor younger than 13 years old.

In a criminal complaint, police said there are two victims. One of the alleged victims was a 14-year-old-girl who told police she was molested by Flora when she was 11, and home alone with him. The second alleged victim is now 22 years old, but claims Flora sexually assaulted her when she was around the same age.

Flora has been on the job for eleven years and is currently assigned to Station 29, but has been placed on suspension.  He is currently being held in jail on $200,000 bail. 

WTAE-TV has more details HERE.

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Posted by on February 7, 2013 • Filed under: arson, crime, current events, Fire Rescue Topics, Videos • Tagged: , , ,

3 Pittsburgh FF’s Burned From Flashover at Arson Incident

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Fire Started by Mental Health Patient

A PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, HOUSE WAS heavily damaged Monday morning when a "mentally disturbed" resident of a group home next door set it alight.

WPXI-TV

Witnesses say that they saw James Casson, 18, sitting on the roof of his residence lighting towels on fire and throwing them onto the roof next door.  His actions caused the roof to catch on fire and it spread into the third floor attic as the residents slept unaware of their house burning.

Casson, center, is taken away by police  (WTAE-TV)

When the FD arrived they pounded on the door to arouse the residents, but the owner thought somebody was trying to break in and he called 9-1-1.  The dispatcher told him that his house was on fire and he should get out.

As the hose crew was operating in the attic, a flashover occurred that caused 2nd-degree burns on three of them.  One of them also had a broken bone in one of his hands.  The entire crew safely made their way back out of the attic.

The fire went to three alarms but was contained to the upper floor of the house.  Damages are estimated at $200,000.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:

Detectives say they don't have a motive. Mr. Casson told them he awoke to the smell of something burning and noticed a fire on the roof next door. He alerted a staff member at the home, who said she couldn't see anything and urged him to go back to sleep. When the smell persisted, Mr. Casson claimed he climbed onto the roof and tried to throw water onto the fire before he jumped onto the fire escape and tried to alert the other residents of the home, Detective John Gilkey wrote in a criminal complaint.

"He kept saying that he was the 'Hero,' " the complaint says.

But after detectives informed Mr. Casson that a witness saw him light at least three towels and throw them, he "became very upset and belligerent and requested a lawyer," the complaint says.

KDKA-TV filed this video report from the scene:

 

The group home is operated by Residential Care Services and has been there for 20 years without incident.  They have 24-hr. supervision with regular bed checks and work to help the patients develop self-reliance and life skills so that they can move back into society at large.  Casson had been a resident for only about a week before this incident.  He is currently being held in Allegheny County Jail under charges of arson, risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.  If he is released for any reason, he will not be permitted to return to the group home.

Read the full report in the Post-Gazette HERE.

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Posted by on September 18, 2012 • Filed under: arson, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Fires, Videos • Tagged: , , ,

Another “Bad Boy” in Pittsburgh

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How Has He Been Able to Keep His Rank Job?

AFTER SEVERAL MONTHS OF CALM, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Fire Department is back in the news today with a battalion chief having been suspended for a criminal assault against his former girlfriend.

Batt. Chief Washabaugh
(Tribune-Review file photo)

James Washabaugh, 54, is accused of showing up at his ex-girlfriend's apartment early Saturday morning and wakening her up while yelling a stream of obscenities before spitting on her and slamming her into a corner causing her to fall to the floor.  The complaint states that when she got back up, he pushed her back down to the floor again.

KDKA-TV has filed this video report:

 

Washabaugh has been in trouble before when in 2008 he was arrested for assaulting his then-girlfriend and threatening to kill her.  He has been in the fire department for 26 years.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette adds:

City Fire Chief Darryl Jones confirmed Saturday that Chief Washabaugh has been suspended without pay, pending an inquiry by an internal disciplinary board.

"I'm upset and I thought that this was something that was behind him," Chief Jones said Saturday night.

Read the full story in the Post-Gazette HERE.

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Posted by on August 5, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, current events, Fire Rescue Topics, labor, Videos • Tagged: ,

Pittsburgh Hits the Police Blotter …. Again

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Is the PD planning to open a sub-station at Fire Department Headquarters?

ONCE AGAIN A PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA FIREFIGHTER is in trouble with the law and his boss after being accused of participating in a gang beating of a man and a woman in a Pittsburgh bar.

WTAE-TV is reporting that a the couple were in the bar when the man, Jeff Morgan inadvertantly touched the motorcycle vest of a member of a group of "bikers" that were in the bar also.

Investigators said Morgan told them he was, "almost immediately he was struck in the back of the head by Anthony Berger with a fifth-sized bottle causing a gaping wound to the back of his head."

Morgan claims several more men began beating him viciously — including Michael Kelly, a (Pittsburgh) firefighter (assigned to Station 13).

Pittsburgh Station 13, Hazelwood

His companion Nicole Murphy told police that she tried to intervene and she, too, was beaten by a man named Jeff Corey.  She told officers Corey, "grabbed her by her hair, began to punch her in the head multiple times, then drug her down the length of the bar and then pinned her on the ground with a bar stool."  Morgan suffered a concussion and needed 60 stitches to his mouth and Murphy is being evaluated to see if a brain tumor which was already present was affected by the assault.  WTAE-TV has the complete story in this video report HERE.

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Since that event took place, another Pittsburgh firefighter has been arrested and charged with simple assault after he struck a lady friend in the head with his fist.  The Post-Gazette reports that Raymond Washington was arrainged on March 22 after officers responding to a complaint noticed a "swollen knot" over Deneen Springs' right ear that they said was about the size of a quarter.

Ms. Springs told them that the argument started after Mr. Washington was sitting in her car after returning from a friend's house and refused to get out.

"Mr. Washington got upset and after heated words were exchanged, he punched her in the right side of her head," the complaint says.

At his home, Mr. Washington told officers he struck his girlfriend in self-defense, the complaint says. He said he was hit in the eye but officers noticed no signs of injury, police wrote.

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Posted by on April 4, 2011 • Filed under: crime, Fire Rescue Topics, labor, Videos • Tagged: , ,

More Pittsburgh FF’s Hit the Police Blotter

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Aptly-Named Brothers Get Pulled In Together

TWO FLORIANS WHO WORK FOR the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Fire Department were arrested early Saturday morning and charged with aggravated assault.  Nicholas Florian, 24, and his brother Ronald, 27, had an altercation with a man on the sidewalk that ended up with the man being hospitalized.  The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting:

Nicholas A. Florian, a firefighter for four years, told police officers he and his brother, Ronald G. Florian, got into an argument with another man before “he and his brother ‘jumped’ the victim,” according to his criminal complaint.

Nicholas Florian, 24, and Ronald Florian, 27, were both charged with aggravated assault and conspiracy.

Officers said they found James Charles Sapienza lying unconscious in the street, bleeding from lacerations on his face and the back of his head, apparently from a bottle or glass that was broken on his head or face. A pool of blood was forming around his head, and officers saw broken glass.

A woman who witnessed the attack said she saw men she later identified as the Florian brothers punching and kicking Mr. Sapienza, who was “lying on the street, dazed and confused as he was being punched and kicked,” the complaint says.

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JUST THREE HOURS BEFORE THE FLORIANS ganged up on Sapienza, a Pittsburgh fire lieutenant, Erik Vater was arrested and charged two counts of DUI and careless driving.  Police say that he was driving and made a left turn into oncoming traffic, then collided with another car.  Again from the Post-Gazette:

Neither driver was hurt, but a passenger in the other vehicle was taken to UPMC Mercy for treatment after complaining of head and neck pain.

Pittsburgh police wrote in a criminal complaint that Lt. Vater, 40, was “swaying visibly and reeked of alcohol beverage” and “freely admitted to having drank alcohol on this evening.” A breath test revealed his blood-alcohol content was 0.228, police said. The legal limit to drive in the state is 0.08.

It looks to be another busy Monday at the PFD HQ.

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Posted by on March 6, 2011 • Filed under: current events, News • Tagged: , , ,

Pittsburgh Fire Captain Arrested

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FOR THE SECOND TIME IN LESS THAN A YEAR, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, firefighter has been arrested on drug or alcohol charges.  On Monday the Pittsburgh Fire Bueau chief learned  that Captain Frank Becker had covered both bases when he was arrested on December 15 after driving through a stop sign. 

The police officer that stopped him found a CD on the front seat with cocaine residue on it and a breathalyzer test showed that Becker had twice the legal limit of alcoholic content in his system.  This was the second time in seven months that Becker had been arrested on a DUI charge.  In May 2009 he was collared after his car hit two utility poles and field test showed that he had 3 times the limit for alcohol.

WTAE-TV Ch. 4 has filed this video report:

Capt. Becker, 38, comes from a family of Pittsburgh firefighters.  His father is an active battalion chief and his two brothers are firefighters also.  One of them, Derek Becker, was arrested last April for DUI and received a suspended jail sentence.  There have been four PFB firefighters arrested for drug or alcohol crimes in the past year.  Capt. Frank Becker has been suspended from duty without pay.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has the story on these arrests and others of PFD members HERE.

Posted by on January 7, 2010 • Filed under: Fire Rescue Topics, labor, Videos • Tagged: , , , ,