Archive
Subscribe Place Ad Buy Trib Photos Readers' Choice Contests
Jobs Homes Autos Classifieds
Trib Total Media Contact Us
ShareThis Page
Monessen woman accused of setting blaze in house that injured 3 firefighters | TribLIVE.com
Westmoreland

Monessen woman accused of setting blaze in house that injured 3 firefighters

Tribune-Review
Tribune-Review | Friday, September 22, 2017 8:27 a.m
gtrMonFireCharges2092317
Submitted photo
Laurel L. Womack, 48, of Monessen.

Police have accused a Monessen woman of setting a fire this week that left three firefighters injured.

Laurel Womack, 48, was charged Thursday with three counts each of arson and aggravated assault, along with causing a catastrophe and criminal mischief in connection with the Summit Avenue fire. She is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison on $100,000 bail.

Monessen police obtained video from a utility pole camera near the house that showed a woman they said was Womack enter and leave the home twice. After leaving the second time, the home caught fire, according to a criminal complaint. Womack then went to a house across the street, sat on the porch and watched the fire, according to police.

Police spoke with Womack, who gave a false surname. After police told her about the camera and video, officers searched her purse and found an Indiana driver’s license for Laurel Womack.

Womack admitted to setting the fire, according to court documents, telling police she first entered the house to see if there was anything to steal. No one was home when the fire started.

The homeowner told police it had been burglarized the previous weekend, when someone entered by breaking a glass pane in the back door.

Womack told police the man who committed the burglary asked her to “blaze” the house, allegedly giving her a bottle of high-proof alcohol, which she dumped on the living-room carpet and lit with matches, according to the complaint.

One fireman suffered a leg injury when he fell through a floor. Medics treated him at the scene, according to Monessen fire Chief Chris Rhome.

Two other firefighters were injured when part of the porch roof collapsed, Rhome said. One was taken to Mon Valley Hospital in Carroll Township and was treated and released, Rhome said.

The third firefighter was treated at the scene.

Womack faces a Sept. 29 preliminary hearing before Monessen District Judge Joseph A. Dalfonso.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-2862, pvarine@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MurrysvilleStar.

Categories: Westmoreland
TribLIVE commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.