Apr. 20—Sometime in the spring of 1941, Michael Piga placed 15 sticks of dynamite inside an outhouse turned shanty behind a home at 300 Market St., in the Cork Lane section of Pittston Township.
Piga, 54, who was a boarder at the home, was a miner at the No. 9 Coal Company in Hughestown and naturally forgot about the dynamite.
A year later, on Aril 24, 1942, a chicken coop next to the shanty caught fire as 12 volunteer firemen responded to extinguish the blaze.
“Dynamite stored by a Pittston Township miner in a shanty more than a year ago exploded yesterday afternoon, injuring 12 volunteer firemen as they were laying a line of hose to put a blaze in the outbuilding at the rear of 300 Market St., Cork Lane,” the Wilkes-Barre Record reported April 25, 1942.
Joseph Walsh, 17, of Poole Street, and Robert Redington, 17, of Market Street, died from injuries sustained in the explosion as 10 other firemen suffered severe burns. Both young men were students at Pittston Township High School when they were killed.
“State police identified Michael Piga, a boarder, as the owner of the dynamite and was being held for questioning and possible prosecution for violation of laws covering use and possession of dynamite,” the Record reported.
When the explosion happened, more than 50 FBI agents from Wilkes-Barre, Scranton and Philadelphia were involved in searching homes in the area where “enemy aliens” were residing. At the time, World War II was underway and the Alien Enemies Act was being enforced, permitting federal agents to search homes occupied by Germans, Italians and Japanese.
Inside the home where Piga lived as a boarder, federal agents confiscated two shotguns, four rifles, ammunition, a detonator and a short wave radio equipped with short wave reception bands. The items seized were found in Piga’s bedroom, the Record reported.
Piga, on April 26, 1942, was charged by state police Corporal Edwin S. Dixon with involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of Walsh and Redington and was arraigned by Justice of the Peace W. Howell Evans in Wyoming Borough. Piga was held at the Luzerne County Prison without bail.
“Dixon explained Piga was held without bail because only a court judge is permitted to take bail in such cases. Dixon told a Wilkes-Barre Record reporter Piga admitted he placed 15 sticks of dynamite in the shanty about a year ago and forgot about the explosives,” the Record reported April 27, 1942.
Piga’s time in prison was short lived as District Attorney Leon Schwartz dropped the manslaughter charge due to insufficient evidence.