DANVILLE — A stream of uniformed firefighters filed into District Judge Marvin Shrawder’s office Tuesday to face a fellow volunteer charged with setting 11 fires in three counties, including a blaze that left a Turbotville firefighter paralyzed.
Chester A. Cyphers, 52, of Whitehall, Montour County, sat stoically awaiting his preliminary hearing on charges of arson, aggravated assault, burglary and related offenses as a group of Warrior Run Area Fire Department volunteers filtered in the room one by one, each sharply dressed in his formal uniform.
Cyphers, a volunteer with the Washingtonville Fire Company, never flinched or looked back at the group as he remained handcuffed in his chair staring at the floor for more than 45 minutes before his attorney, George Lepley, of Lewisburg, announced that the hearing would be waived.
Following the proceeding, Cyphers was returned to Montour County Jail in lieu of $400,000 straight bail. He now faces a formal arraignment in Montour County Court next month.
Cyphers’ arrest April 16 ended a monthlong investigation by state police into more than 60 suspicious fires across Columbia, Lycoming, Montour and Northumberland counties since 2004. Most of the arsons Cyphers has been charged with occurred in Montour County, including the Nov. 28 barn fire in Anthony Township, where Wayne Hawley Jr., 52, of Turbotville, severely injured his spine while fighting the blaze.
Hawley, a captain with Warrior Run, was struck by a heavy beam that fell and left him paralyzed from the waist down. Hawley is still undergoing treatment at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia, but is expected home late next week, according to Mark Burrows, Warrior Run fire chief.
“He is handling it very well,” Burrows said. “He hasn’t gotten mad or frustrated. His rehab is very vigorous, but everything has improved and he is just about ready to come home.”
Burrows said the fire department has kept strong as the investigation, and now court proceedings, continue.
“Obviously, we’re all very disheartened,” Burrows said. “It’s a real shame this had to happen the way it did. Our membership feels for the Washingtonville firefighters. We know they had nothing to do with this.”
Since his arrest, Cyphers has been remorseful and upset, according to Lepley.
“He has been under tremendous emotional distress,” Lepley said. “He was near tears at times. He and I can’t fathom the pain the (Hawley) family has been going through.”
In addition to the Anthony Township fire, Cyphers reportedly admitted to setting up to 25 fires by using butane grill lighters.
Cyphers was allegedly caught in the act of setting another fire when he was arrested by state police April 16 along Berriman Hollow Road in Muncy Creek Township, Lycoming County. According to police reports, Cyphers set two brush fires that day, including one that consumed two acres of a wooded area.
When investigators later searched his residence, they found four lighters like those Cyphers described using to set the fires, according to police reports.
Norman Fedder, state police fire marshal at Milton, said authorities began to focus on Cyphers in February and kept him under surveillance up until he was stopped 20 feet from the second brush fire he set in Muncy Creek Township.
“Ever since his arrest was made public, we’ve continued to receive information about suspicious fires,” said Robert Buehner Jr., Montour County district attorney. “Information about the fires we believe he was involved in has been turned over to the state police. We’re still asking the public to report any fires they remember Cyphers being at, whether it was as a firefighter or spectator. The investigation does not stop with this arrest.”
n E-mail comments to jnorth@dailyitem.com.
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