{"id":281690,"date":"2026-09-08T20:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T20:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281690\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T20:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T20:38:10","slug":"man-accused-of-starting-string-of-fires-in-pittsburgh-throwing-firework-under-police-vehicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281690\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of starting string of fires in Pittsburgh, throwing firework under police vehicle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">PITTSBURGH  \u2014 A man was arrested early Tuesday morning, accused of lighting a series of fires across Pittsburgh and throwing a firework under a police vehicle. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">A Pittsburgh Public Safety spokesperson said police were first called to Reedsdale Street on the North Side around 7:30 a.m. for reports of a suspicious man and a man walking with an open flame. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Fire Investigation Unit detectives were also called for a man spotted lighting the side of a trash can on fire by Rivers Casino, then leaving. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Before that call, detectives had seen traffic cones that had been burned on Reedsdale Street. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The man was seen next outside the Downtown Public Safety Center, throwing a lit sparkler underneath a vehicle on Wood Street. He was arrested at the nearby intersection of Stanwix Street and Blvd. of the Allies, while trying to light a piece of cardboard on fire. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The spokesperson identified the suspect as Jeffrey Rotunda, 36. He\u2019s reportedly facing multiple charges, including arson and criminal mischief. At last check, the entire list of charges Rotunda faces wasn\u2019t posted online. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 A man was arrested early Tuesday morning, accused of lighting a series of fires across Pittsburgh&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[36,117726,51478,9860,117714,73,75,74,485,73105,25847,37981],"class_list":["post-281690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-arson","tag-downtown-safety-center","tag-fire-investigation-unit","tag-fireworks","tag-jeffrey-rotunda","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-police-vehicle","tag-reedsdale-street","tag-rivers-casino","tag-sparkler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}