PSP successfully fights open records appeal seeking cause of fatal Nescopeck fire
NESCOPECK – More than two years after a blaze killed ten people in this Luzerne County community, State Police have yet to release a cause and successfully fought an open records request to keep it under wraps.
The Bloomsburg Press-Enterprise filed a right-to-know request on August 6, 2024 seeking the fire marshal’s report for the fatal First Street blaze two years and a day prior, August 5, 2022.
“It’s in the public interest to release this report,” Susan Schwartz, the paper’s Berwick area reporter, contended in the appeal. “The [fire] killed 10 people. Members of the community suspect it was started by arson, possible by one of the four survivors. As a result, more than $100,000 donated to help the victims has not been released by the fund drive organizer for fear it would go to the arsonist, even though two years have passed.”
The fast-moving blaze leveled the home and the victims who perished were as young as five and as old as 79.
Since the fire, the only information troopers have released, the Press-Enterprise reported Sunday, is a list of victims — names of adults and ages and genders of children — and that there were three unnamed survivors.
The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records ruled last week on a right-to-know request appeal made by the newspaper.
According to the final determination filed by Josh Macel, appeals officer, the report the newspaper sought is “a component of a PSP criminal investigation” and can be withheld.
The newspaper sought a redacted copy as well, though Macel writes “it is well-settled that an agency is not required to redact an otherwise exempt record.”
State Police also contend that releasing the report may be subject to the Criminal History Information Act and prohibited from disclosure.
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