DUBOIS – Two area men waived their right to a preliminary hearing Friday over their involvement with the May fire at the Wendy’s Restaurant in DuBois.
Travis Schwenttner of DuBois and Kyle Leonard of Grampian face numerous charges from a fire at Wendy’s Restaurant. Each originally faced eight charges and each had some dismissed or lowered.
Both still face individual charges on conspiracy, dangerous burning, possession of explosive and incendiary material, criminal mischief and intent to damage property and risking catastrophe.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, police and fire crews from DuBois and Sandy Township arrived at Wendy’s Restaurant 1:35 a.m. on May 26. The fire appeared to the reporting officer to be on the roof and not an inside fire that had spread to the roof.
While the fire was being fought a witness said they saw people playing with fireworks in the parking lot a few hours earlier. Spent fireworks could still be seen scattered over the parking lot.
The state police fire marshall later identified the source of the fire as coming from the roof.
When a shift manager and employee were interviewed the two stated they had seen Schwentner and Leonard playing with fountain style fireworks.
Both contacted the police and admitted they were playing with fireworks in the parking lot. Each gave a written statement that Leonard threw a seemingly burned out firework onto the restaurant’s roof. According to Leonard, Schwentner had picked the firework off the ground and told Leonard to “roof it”. According to Schwentner, Leonard picked up the spent firework on his own and threw it. Later after the fire occurred Leonard threatened Schwentner not to tell anyone of what happened.
Wendy’s Restaurant lost $585,000 in the fire between building damage, destruction of inside contents and loss of income from having to be closed for a while.