PITTSBURGH -- Two young brothers -- ages 14 and 10 -- were arrested early Friday morning in connection with a fire at their home in Pittsburgh's Sheraden neighborhood, where a string of recent arsons has kept the community on edge lately.
According to police, the boys were on their porch roof in the 3000 block of Zephyr Avenue around 2:15 a.m., setting paper on fire in a trash can when the fire got out of control.
"They intentionally set the paper on fire. I don't know if it's out of curiosity or if it's because of everything that's going on down there or what," said Detective Mike Burns, of the city police bureau's arson squad.
Police said it wasn't a large fire because the boys' mother woke up and stopped them before any further damage could be done. Still, the fire melted the shingles on the home.
"They play with fireworks a lot and, at first, I thought that's what it was. But then I could see it was flames," said a neighbor, who did not want to be identified.
The Sheraden neighborhood has had seven suspected arsons over the last month, so police take every fire in the neighborhood very seriously.
"I thought, well, if I don't call and someone burns to death, I'm at fault, so I called the 911," the neighbor said.
A number of homes have been damaged or destroyed in the past month in Sheraden by what police believe is a serial arsonist. Two other suspicious fires, one set near a fence and another that damaged a garage, have also been blamed on arson.
Though police said the boys are not suspects in those cases, they said it's possible that the two children were influenced by the recent fires.
Both boys were taken to the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center on charges of arson, risking a catastrophe and criminal mischief. They are not being identified because of their ages.
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