Day/date: Saturday, June 14, 1986
FIELD INCIDENT REPORT
Initial Report
Date/time of incident: 6/14/86, 5:30 am Date/time received: 6/14/86, 12:15 pm
Park: FORT NECESSITY Park CI #: N/A
Reported by: Bill Supernaugh, MARO Phone(s): FTS 597-7057
Received by: Sgt. H.A. Lensch, USPP Phone(s): 426-6680
Follow-up contact: Supernaugh, Fink Phone(s): Bill Fink, FONE: 412-329-5512
Brief summary of incident: Arson fire to non-historic Hager
House & garage. +/-98,000 in damage, no injuries.
Follow Up Report
Received by: Bill Halainen Phone(s): 343-4875
Incident location: Above
Summary:
See attached report from superintendent, FONE. Supplemental info;
Fort Necessity requested and received authorization to expend
emergency funds for 24-hour patrols of park.
Visitors involved:
Name Address DOB Sex
N/A
Anticipated developments:
Fire marshall to examine site(s) on Sunday or Monday. John Hegar, FRSP, to assist.
Any impacts on visitation?
No, except for loss of $11,000 sign inventory.
Potential sensitivity? No
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
Washington, D.C. 20240
FROM: FONE DATED: 06/14/86
TO: RAD
SUBJECT: Arson fires at. FONE, 6/14/86
W34
June 14, 1986
Memorandum
To: Regional Director, Mid-Atlantic Region
From: Superintendent, FONE/FRHI
Subject: Arson Fires at FONE, 6/14/86
At 5:25 am on Saturday, June 14, 1986, the Farmington VFD
received a report of a fire at the Hager House. They alerted
Chief Ranger Greenfield who responded to the scene after
having his wife alert me. The fire department reported that
upon their arrival, at about 5:35 am, both the two story Hager
house (building 55) and the so called Hager garage (building
56), a two bay garage with a single story building on
top of it, were fully involved and beyond any possible chance of
saving.
The state police fire marshal arrived about 10:00 am and
took preliminary information for his investigation. He plans
to return on Monday to conduct a detailed investigation, although
he expects to find little of evidentiary value. He confirmed
our determination that since the buildings were equally involved,
a dumpster in between the two buildings was not singed, and
there was no wind, it is virtually certain that the fires were
deliberately set.
There are a number of leads to be investigated, although none
seems particularly promising at this point. Since we do not
know whether this was a random act or one directed specifically
at us, we are undertaking 24 hour patrols of both parks for the
next several days. We have also requested the assistance of
Ranger John Hager, FRSP, a graduate of the FBI
arson school. The fire marshal would welcome Hager's
assistance, since the marshal's partner is ill and there
were four other fires in the county last night (none of
those believed to be related to ours). Operations has
activated an emergency L&O account to cover these additional
costs.
The Hager house and garage were acquired by the service-
through a condemnation in 1978; we acquired occupancy in 1983.,
In 1975 the appraised value of the improvements on the 8.82
acres was about $30,000. Over the last two years we had been
working, as time and money permitted, to convert
house into a protection residence and to convert the garage
into a Resources Management Shop.
The house had been gutted on the inside; insulation, rough
wiring, a furnace system, and studs for the room partitions
were in place. New windows and doors were either in place
or stored inside the building. A new roof had been installed;
a new septic system for both buildings was completed
only a few weeks ago.
The RM shop was about 85% complete. We had poured new
concrete flooring, re1 aid one block wall, pargetted the
rest of the walls, installed french drains, installed
a furnace, completed the insulation, sub-siding,
sub-flooring, panelling and most of the ceiling tiles and
finish wiring. In the downstairs area we had all of our
wildfire tools, most of our sign storage (including about
$11,000 worth of new signs), and scaffolding worth about
$1,000. Our costs for materials and services to complete this
work over the last two years was about $45,000. Our total loss,
at a minimum, is about $92,750.
I had last been in the house, with chief of maintenance Darcey
and Tom Bartholemew, USPHS, at about 11:00 am on Friday,
June 13. I noticed nothing unusual. Chief Ranger-
Greenfield had last been by the house/RM shop complex at 10:45
pm, on Friday, June 13, as a part of a regular night patrol.
He had noticed nothing unusual.
We greatly appreciate the assistance of Bill Supernaugh
and Steve Alscher in today's activities and are confident
all of your staff will once again be of tremendous benefit to us
during our efforts to recover from this loss.