A Scranton man set fire to his home Saturday while his elderly mother was still inside, police said.
Ryan Patrick Gething, 48, was jailed Monday at the Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $30,000 bail. he has a preliminary hearing tentatively scheduled May 27 on charges of arson, risking catastrophe, simple assault and harassment.
City police accused Gething of pushing his 83-year-old mother to the ground during a dispute just after 6 a.m. Saturday and then setting fire to papers in an attempt to catch the rest of their house on the 1800 block of Ash Street. The house filled with smoke. Gething’s mother, Rosemary Gething, escaped and contacted the police.
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At the house, authorities found stacks of burnt paper on two stove stops, a red gas can in the living room and a cooking pot full of fluid that smelled like liquid gas in a bedroom next to the kitchen.
Rosemary Gething was not hurt.