A McKean Township man whose home was destroyed by fire Thursday morning is accused by Pennsylvania State Police of creating a greater risk to the area by knocking over a large natural gas storage tank on the property while the remains of his house was still smoking.
Mitchell P. Grenz, 28, is in the Erie County Jail without bail following his arraignment Thursday afternoon on felony charges of risk of catastrophe and criminal mischief and on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and failure to prevent a catastrophe.
Among the notations made in Grenz’s criminal record for McKean District Judge Denise Stuck-Lewis’ decision not to set bail was that Grenz allegedly made several comments that he would damage the gas tanks again.
An attorney for Grenz was not listed on the docket.
State police filed the charges following an investigation related to a fire at Grenz’s residence in the 3300 block of East Stancliff Road in McKean Township. The fire was reported around 1:45 a.m. Thursday, and firefighters arrived on scene to find the two-story residence fully involved in the fire, said Scott Haywood, chief of McKean Hose Co.
Firefighters were forced to fight the fire from outside due to its intensity, Haywood said. Crews remained on scene for several hours Thursday morning. There were no injuries in the fire.
According to information in the criminal complaint filed against Grenz, firefighters’ efforts to put out the fire were hampered by Grenz, who allegedly acted hostile and refused to provide information about the locations of gas wells on the property. Grenz also allegedly did not allow people responsible for the property’s gas wells and sites to assist in shutting down the sites, the investigating officer wrote in the complaint’s probable cause statement.
While crews were fighting the fire, investigators said Grenz contacted a state police supervisor in Lawrence Park Township and indicated that when everyone had cleared the property, he would take down the gas wells and gas containers so that the gas well tenants couldn’t turn them off. and make them safe, according to the statement.
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State police determined after visiting the property that morning that a large gas tank was intentionally knocked over, causing six homes in the area to lose access to natural gas and creating the potential for a large explosion, the investigating officer wrote in the affidavit .
The cause of the house fire remained under investigation Tuesday. Grenz is tentatively scheduled to appear in court for his preliminary hearing on August 12.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared in the Erie Times-News: McKean man accused of tipping over gas tank at scene of Thursday house fire
