A McKean Township man whose home was destroyed by fire early Thursday morning is accused by Pennsylvania State Police of creating a greater danger to the surrounding area by knocking over a large natural gas storage tank on the property while the remains of his home were still smoldering.
Mitchell P. Grenz, 28, is being held without bail in the Erie County Jail after being arraigned Thursday afternoon on charges of risking a disaster and criminal damage and misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and failure to prevent a disaster.
One of the annotations on Grenz’s record before District Judge Denise Stuck-Lewis’ decision in McKean not to set bail was that Grenz allegedly said multiple times that he would destroy gas tanks again.
A lawyer for Grenz was not listed in the court documents.
State police filed the charges after investigating a fire at Grenz’s home in the 3300 block of East Stancliff Road in McKean Township. The fire was reported around 1:45 a.m. Thursday, and firefighters arrived to find the two-story home fully engulfed in flames, said Scott Haywood, chief of the McKean Hose Co.
Firefighters had to fight the fire from the outside because of its intensity, Haywood said. Crews remained on the scene for several hours Thursday morning. No injuries were reported in the fire.
According to information in the criminal complaint filed against Grenz, firefighters’ efforts to extinguish the fire were impeded by Grenz, who allegedly acted hostilely and refused to provide information about gas well locations on the property. Grenz also allegedly failed to allow people responsible for the gas wells and gas locations on the property to assist in sealing off the locations, the investigating agent wrote in the complaint’s affidavit of probable cause.
While firefighters were battling the fire, Grenz contacted a state police supervisor in Lawrence Park Township. He told them that once everyone was off the property, he would remove the gas wells and gas containers so that the gas well tenants could not seal them off and make them safe, the statement said.
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State police determined after an inspection of the property later that morning that a large gas tank had been intentionally knocked down, cutting off access to natural gas for six nearby homes and allowing for a large explosion, the investigating agent wrote in the affidavit.
The cause of the house fire was still under investigation on Tuesday. Grenz is tentatively scheduled to appear in court on August 12 for his preliminary hearing.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on the Erie Times-News: McKean man accused of knocking over gas tank at scene of house fire Thursday
