Pennsylvania has 2 confirmed coronavirus cases

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania has its first two cases of coronavirus, one in Delaware County and one in Wayne County, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Friday morning.

The two people are isolated in their homes, Wolf said at news conference in Harrisburg.

The Delaware County case is an adult who recently traveled to an area of the United States where COVID-19 is present, officials said. The other case is an adult who recently traveled to a country where the coronavirus is.

No other information on the people affected has been released.

Second fire is suspicious, fire officials say

BLOOMSBURG — Another set of fires early Thursday morning in the same neighborhood as a blaze that leveled two garages the day before is “suspicious,” fire officials say.

Less than 24 hours after extinguishing fires at 410 and 412 East Eight Street, crews were called back around 11:30 p.m. to another garage fire on Ninth Street, said Bloomsburg Fire Chief Scott McBride. 

It’s unusual to have a cluster of fires in such a small area, so McBride called for the State Police fire marshal, he said. 

Fire destroys two garages, endangers third

BLOOMSBURG — Wind whipped the flames from a burning garage into a neighbor’s garage, engulfing both in fire early Wednesday morning, the fire chief says.

But replacement water lines recently installed on the eastern side of town gave volunteers enough water pressure to prevent the blaze from spreading to nearby houses and a third garage, said Chief Scott McBride.

The fire was first reported around 1:35 a.m., he said.

SUV crashes into church

BRIAR CREEK TWP. — A SUV crashed into a 127-year-old church here Tuesday afternoon after another vehicle struck it, police say.

A 1999 Chevrolet Suburban pulled out from a stop sign on Twin Church Road and into the path of a 2004 Chevrolet SUV headed north on Summerhill Road, officers said.

After the SUV hit the Suburban, the Suburban veered off the road, smashed through a brick sign in front of Summerhill Evangelical United Methodist church and stopped up against the church, police say. 

Pipe bomb found in backpack at ‘Bloom Beach’

BLOOMSBURG — A State Police bomb squad from the Lehigh Valley was called to “Bloom Beach” off Irondale Road Saturday after Bloomsburg University students found a backpack containing what appeared to be an explosive along a stream bank, police say. 

Bloomsburg Police Chief Roger Van Loan said the device appeared to be a homemade pipe bomb inside a backpack whose specific purpose was to carry the pipe bomb. 

Van Loan, who recently returned as Bloomsburg Police chief, said no type of identification was found inside the backpack. 

Teen injured in Friday morning crash

FRANKLIN TWP. — A 17-year-old driver sideswiped another vehicle Friday morning, sending his own car careening down a small embankment and onto its roof, police say.

Bradley Klaus, Elysburg, was headed north on Route 487 with passenger Nicholas Dorkoski, 17, around 8 a.m. when he crossed into the opposite lane near J & D Campground, according to Locust Township Police Chief Allen Breach.

The sharp curve about a mile and a half north of Knoebels Amusement Resort has been the site of “far too many” accidents, Breach noted.

Cops: Mom charged with hiding her son

DANVILLE — After police found a missing 11-year-old Danville boy hiding in the closet of a New Jersey home, his mother faces serious criminal charges.

Officers say Magaly Perez, 35, of Hamilton Township, New Jersey, concealed the wherabouts of the child and interfered with his custody. Both are felony criminal charges.

Eleven-year-old Andray Knighton had been in the care of his grandmother Naomi White in Danville, charges state. She won primary custody of the boy through a 2015 Luzerne County court order, and he had been attending Danville Middle School.

Cops: Man admits to striking two with car at BU, fleeing

BLOOMSBURG — A man drove into two people with a car Saturday on the top level of Bloomsburg University’s parking garage before before fleeing — dragging one of the victims nearly 40 feet, arrest papers say.

Elijah Eric Malik Reese, 19, of Philadelphia then allegedly abandoned the white Nissan Sentra about a block from the Tri-Level garage. 

He ran away before police could catch him on Saturday afternoon, according to charges, but the whole thing was caught on video by a bystander.

Crash sends woman to hospital

SOUTH CENTRE TWP. — A 22-year-old woman and her Dalmatian escaped serious injury when she lost control of her car Thursday morning and crashed into a stream, police say.

Savannah Johnson, 29 Prossedo Drive, Apt. 202, Danville, was headed north on Bissets Lane around 9:15 when her Chevrolet Cruze drifted off the right side of the roadway, according to South Centre Police Chief Bill Richendrfer.

Johnson’s passenger tires dropped into an unmarked culvert before she over-corrected, crossed the road, and slammed into the small waterway on the opposite side.

Police, coroner investigate at Hess Fields

MAHONING TWP. — Police agencies and a representative of the Montour County Coroner’s office converged on Hess Fields around 8:30 Tuesday night.
Cpl. Jonathan Swank, Danville’s officer-in-charge, released no details, but said more information would be released by Wednesday morning.
The recreation area was the site of a suicide in early November. A man’s body was found after two days of searching.
A resident of Meadow Lane, near where law enforcement assembled Tuesday, said she finds the incidents concerning.

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