Father & son, chief & assistant chief, arrested after clash with neighboring fire company over fire that destroyed son's home. The story from Bradford County, Pennsylvania.
Monroe Hose Company website (doesn’t appear to be current, but Don Stranger Sr. is listed as the vice president)
Dale Stranger’s house was destroyed by fire on Sunday. It apparently started as an electrical fire around the furnace. But Stranger’s troubles didn’t end there. Stranger, 35, his father Donald, 62, and a friend, all ended up under arrest. Police say they had to twice use a TASER on Dale Stranger.
Pennsylvania State Police say the arrests came when Dale Stranger didn’t like the way firefighters from the Monroe Hose Company were handling the fire and it went downhill from there. You see, Dale Stranger is the assistant chief and president of the Franklin Township VFD, a neighboring fire company. Stranger’s dad, Donald, is the chief and vice president of the same company.
And the third person charged in this case? He’s 35-year-old William Haney, a member of both the Franklin Township and Monroe Hose fire companies.
Here are excerpts from an article by James Loewenstein at the DailyReview.com:
The fire took place in the village of Powell in Monroe Township, which is the jurisdiction of the Monroe Hose Company, so Monroe Hose Company Fire Chief Paul Bump was in charge of the fire fighting operations at the scene, said Richard Vargson, second assistant fire chief of the Monroe Hose Company.
Dale Stranger “was not satisfied with the manner they (the Monroe Hose Company) was putting out the fire,” state Trooper Ben Bigus said.
Dale Stranger was yelling and shouting at the firefighters on scene and “had to be detained by fire personnel on scene,” Bigus said.
“It was getting out of hand,” Vargson said, explaining why he called in the police. “I just wanted him (Dale Stranger) to calm down or leave” so that firefighters could continue to put out the fire without interference, Vargson sad.
Vargson said he feels bad for Dale Stranger, because he lost everything he owned in the fire, but said that he shouldn’t have gotten “all irate” at the firefighters.
State police said that after they arrived on scene, they ordered Dale Stranger to cease his actions.
Dale Stranger “again became disorderly and was taken into custody” after two TASERS were used on him, the state police said in their press release.
Donald Stranger, 61, of Monroeton, who is the chief of the Franklin Township Volunteer Fire Company, “became disorderly after failing to comply with orders from the state police,” the press release said.
Donald Stranger “became argumentative with the state police and had to be detained,” Bigus said.
Haney was cited for disorderly conduct after he “entered an unmarked police cruiser without authorization to speak with Donald Stranger,” the press release said.
Donald Stranger and Haney both refused to listen to what the state police were telling them to do, Bigus said. The fire was an emergency situation, and people need to obey the police at such a scene “to maintain the safety and security of the scene,” Bigus said.
“The situation was starting to get volatile,” Bigus said. “We had to tell people what to do, and they didn’t listen. The situation could have gotten much more out of hand if we had not detained the people we detained.”
Haney declined to comment at this time on what happened at the fire.
Donald Stranger, who is the father of Dale Stranger, said he had been advised by his attorney not to comment on what happened.
However, the fire chief did say that Haney did not go inside the police cruiser, but was outside the cruiser and had talked to him through an open window of the vehicle.
The fire chief said that after the court proceedings in the case are over, he would issue a press release about what happened.
“There were a lot of things that were said and done (by the state police at the scene) that should not have happened,” the fire chief said.
