Connellsville arsons mirror Coatesville's

CONNELLSVILLE, Pa. - Tony Pujia was sleeping off a long night of working, followed by a few beers with his girlfriend, when a pounding on his door awakened him.

A friend had come to tell him that someone set fire to his hair salon in a building he owned in downtown Connellsville. Pujia rushed to the scene.

"I saw my place was on fire. I couldn't believe it," he said. "When you don't know who does this to you, it's a creepy feeling."

The fire, in June 2004, was the 10th of 26 arsons to strike the small Western Pennsylvania town over 18 tense months.

"It was an ugly time," Police Chief Ed McSheffery said.

The arsons in Connellsville, a town built up around the coal mines that once dominated the region, finally ended after a suspect was arrested in 2005.

The story of those fires could provide a glimpse into what to expect in Coatesville, the former Chester County steel town that must recover from its own plague of arsons and the fears they engendered.

Weary residents there can only hope their ordeal ended last week when authorities arrested two men.

Investigators in Coatesville have revealed little of the evidence against their main suspect, 19-year-old Roger Leon Barlow Jr., of Downingtown. But as the case moves to court, residents will learn more and more about the fires and the men accused of setting them. Most important, they will find out whether the fires stop.

This is a process the people in Connellsville know well.

In both Connellsville and Coatesville - towns alike in size and with a common history of industrial rise and decline - the fires primarily were started with debris and furniture outside homes, often ignited in the early morning.

Residents in both places were told to leave nothing flammable outside, to turn on their lights, and to report suspicious people.

And the main suspects in each case were characterized as mentally handicapped men who liked to watch things burn.

Richard Bower, a lawyer and former prosecutor in Connellsville, was picking up his children from their grandparents' house one Sunday morning when he spotted the fire at Pujia's hair salon.

Then he saw a man come out of the alley where the fire had been set.

"The guy pops out from the side of the building," Bower said. "He just walks by and looks at me, and I thought, 'What the?' "

Bower called 911. Later, agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives asked him to look at a photo array. Bower identified Harry Collins, an unemployed handyman. Collins, then 57, also was captured on two surveillance videos watching buildings burn.

"There's a theory: If there's an arson, you go back to the scene and watch it," Bower said. "The reason they're setting the fire is to watch it burn."

Collins was arrested in April 2005, after the last arson was set at Wesley United Methodist Church. A security camera at a nearby grocery store captured him at the scene when that fire was sparked.

Investigators said he had told them that he had two personalities, including "bad Harry," who sometimes got "good Harry" into trouble. A psychologist later testified that Collins heard a voice commenting on his behavior.

Collins' attorney unsuccessfully argued that his client wasn't competent to stand trial.

In the Coatesville fires, Barlow's mother described her son as having a slight mental handicap. Another man arrested for arson in Coatesville in December said he heard voices.

Arsons are notoriously difficult to solve, and Collins was charged with only four of the 26 in Connellsville. The rest are considered unsolved, which could be the fate of many of the Coatesville fires. Barlow has been charged with just nine of them.

In 2006, Collins was convicted of two arsons, and later was sentenced to four to 20 years in prison.

Nearly three years later, the scars remain in the city of 9,100, seen in the empty lots where buildings once stood and in the memories of people shaken by the randomness of the attacks.

"This is the kind of area where you can actually leave your doors unlocked," Bower said. "The people I know don't do that anymore."

But Pujia said that once he had realized the arsons had been random, "that took a load off my shoulders."

"They thought somebody was p.o.'d at the town," he said. "Turns out it's a retarded guy. He doesn't know what he's doing to people."

Kay Cropp, the secretary at Wesley United Methodist Church, said she still checked the alley around the church each morning. Collins was convicted of the fire there, which caused $9,000 in damage.

"It's just a habit," Cropp said. "Just to make sure no one's sneaking around."

More than one arsonist was at work in Connellsville, which led many in town to question whether Collins was the one starting the fires. Two of the 26 arsons were attributed to others - a man who burned his own home, and two juveniles who set fire to the storage room at a local stadium.

But the arsons didn't stop until Collins was arrested, leading investigators to believe the other fires were copycats.

"When you have something like that going on, you run the risk of someone taking advantage of the situation," said McSheffery, the police chief.

Pujia said some of his customers still asked if he really thought Collins was guilty. He has a simple answer for them:

"Has there been a fire since?"