Oct 28, 2014 2 min read

BELLE VERNON – Store surveillance footage that survived a fire last week at a Rostraver Township strip mall led police to make an arrest Monday in the arson that caused more than $2 million in damage to the building and its contents.

Township police said the video showed a man identified by a Dollar General employee as Johnathan A. Szabo remove a lighter from a store shelf there Friday and use it to set fire to paper products, court records indicate.

Szabo, 24, of 213 Shady Ave., Charleroi, is in Westmoreland County jail on $250,000 bond after being arraigned before District Judge Joseph Dalfonso in Monessen on three felony counts of arson, as well as charges of causing or risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.

He is accused of setting the fire about 6:45 p.m. Friday in the discount store in Tri-County Plaza, off Route 201 at Interstate 70. Two adjacent businesses, Jo-Ann Fabrics and Hallmark Cards and Gifts, also had smoke and water damage as a result of the fire.

Police said 14 people were inside the Dollar General at the time of the fire, which damaged the structure “to the point that the roof was in danger of collapsing on emergency personnel.”

The building is owned by Tri-County Plaza 1989 LP, which has yet to say whether the store will be rebuilt, police said. Dollar General’s media staff did not return a message Tuesday.

Szabo is scheduled to appear for his preliminary hearing at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 7 before Dalfonso.