3 bodies pulled from Pa. pond; official says at least 2 were volunteer teen firefighters

Teenage firefighters’ bodies pulled from Pa. pond

ZELIENOPLE, Pa. — The bodies of three missing teenagers were pulled Wednesday morning from an icy Pennsylania pond where their vehicle crashed, including two who were firefighters for their small town’s volunteer department.

The teens, two of them age 18 and a third 17, were reported missing hours after they never showed up for a weekly drill session Tuesday night, officials said. It wasn’t clear whether they were on their way there when the Ford Explorer crashed.

“It appears there’s some stones on the road and it may have lost control,” said Zelienople Police Chief Jim Miller. Light snow coated the road Wednesday morning, but it was not immediately clear what the weather was Tuesday night. It appeared that the vehicle glanced off a tree before splashing into the pond, Miller said.

The first two bodies recovered around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday were those of Zelienople Volunteer Fire Department members, Fire Capt. Tyler Murray said. They were found in the vehicle, while the third victim was pulled out of the pond around 10:30 a.m. after the vehicle was removed, Miller said.

The names of the teens weren’t immediately released, but all three attended Seneca Valley High School in Butler County. A district spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

At the fire house in Zelienople, a town with three traffic lights that’s nestled among farmland and woods about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, flags were lowered to half-staff and a firefighter hung two black wreaths.

The department holds drills Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m., Murray said, but he couldn’t confirm that the teens were on their way to it when they crashed.

Police were notified the teens were missing around 1 a.m. Wednesday, Miller said. They focused on searching the area near the crash site because that’s where the teens last used a cell phone or phones.

Zelienople has a junior firefighter program, but it wasn’t clear whether the volunteers belonged to it or were full-fledged firefighters. The third victim was not affiliated with the department, Miller said.

It’s not unusual for volunteer companies nationwide to try to give teenagers a taste for the job, said Kimberly Ettinger, a spokeswoman for the National Volunteer Fire Council. Zelienople’s junior program is one of about 1,000 nationwide, she said.

Associated Press writer Joe Mandak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.