JEANNETTE, Pa., Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Six people, one of them a teenager, were charged Wednesday with a series of arsons in a small Pittsburgh-area city.
The six were arrested by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. A BATF spokesman, Marc Willis, said they are charged with starting nine fires in Jeannette during the past four years but may have set as many as 11 more.
"The City of Jeannette has been extremely anxious about the number of arsons ... since 2008," Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck said at a news conference. "I think people can rest easy now."
Investigators did not identify which fires the suspects allegedly set but said two were in occupied buildings and the others were in vacant houses.
Jeannette is a small industrial city about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh that has dropped about 20 percent in population since 1990 and lost much of its industrial base.
The five adult suspects range in age from 21 to 27. The sixth, a 17-year-old, is charged as a juvenile.
