Last year was a bad one for fires in the gritty coal town of Mahanoy City. In February 2013, the former General Cigar plant burned. In April, two people died when their home caught fire. In May, lightning started a fire that injured a firefighter, and in August, the Washington Hook & Ladder Company was destroyed by a blaze that started in a firetruck.

Given the circumstances, calling in a false alarm at 11 p.m. Oct. 15, 2013, was probably not the best idea Tyler Mooney ever had.On Monday, a Schuylkill County jury found the 20-year-old Mooney of Mahanoy City guilty of pulling the false fire alarm and of disorderly conduct. But he didn't trigger a false alarm in an incident the month before, on Sept. 22, 2013, from the same alarm box, jurors decided.Mooney faces sentencing on Dec. 9 before Judge Cyrus Dolbin.It was Mahanoy City police Cpl. Michael Dissinger who filed the charges against Mooney. He described in an affidavit of probable cause what happened that night.Police responded to an incoming fire alarm box at 11 p.m. at Fourth and Mahanoy streets. But when they got there, they found the alarm to be false; no one was around.They spoke with several people in the area who described Mooney, whom police knew. One witness said she saw Mooney getting into a silver station wagon that dropped him off a few blocks up Mahanoy Street. She recognized Mooney, she told police, because of his mohawk haircut.Dissinger and officer Jonathan McHugh went to Mooney's house at 401 E. Mahanoy St., which is directly across the street from the fire alarm box. Mooney was home, and agreed to come out and talk with them.With Mooney in the back of the patrol car, the officers drove to where they spoke with the witness. Yes, she said, that's him.They took Mooney to the police station, where he was given his Miranda rights. Then, he was asked to place his hands under a black light, where they appeared shiny.It turns out that a gel that glows under a black light had been smeared on all of the fire alarm boxes in town after a number of false alarms three in August alone had been pulled.Mooney cooled his heels in a holding cell after declaring he wouldn't talk. After about 15 minutes, he told police he changed his mind and would talk, and that he might know who had pulled the alarm.Mooney told police he was with a person who handed him a rag and told him to get rid of it.Eventually, police gathered enough evidence to charge Mooney.Sixteen firefighters went into emergency mode when the alarm was pulled, Dissinger wrote in the affidavit."Responding to emergencies, especially at night, is extremely dangerous to not only the firefighters, but also the traveling public," he wrote.