Local Police Officer Loses Home To Fire

WEST MIFFLIN (KDKA) -- Fire destroyed the home of a local police officer and his son.

Bill Haines is a part-time patrolman in Whitehall Borough and for the Southwest Regional Police Department in Belle Vernon.

A fire in his home on Mingo Junction Road in Union Township, Washington County, was initially confined to chimney.

Volunteer firefighters put the fire out, but it rekindled overnight and destroyed his home.

Haines and his teenage son are now staying at a motel in West Mifflin.

"Everything that I usually tell everybody about, 'Just be happy you got out – no one got hurt,' they're telling me the same thing," Haines said.

Haines said he believes the volunteer firefighters did all they could to put the flames out on both occasions.

"Those firemen … a lot of them are volunteers," Haines said. "They put their lives on the line just as police officers do and you know, they were there this morning and when they entered the house, the roof collapsed on two of them – luckily they didn't get hurt so, I mean, we depend on them just as much as they depend on us."

Southwest Regional Police Chief John Hartman said members of the public are stopping by the department and dropping off donations for the family.

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