Regional Roundup

Vacant city garage destroyed by fire STEUBENVILLE — A vacant garage at the rear of 319 S. Fifth St. was destroyed by fire Thursday evening and the cause has not been determined, the city fire department reported. The fire department was called out around 7:50 p.m. Thursday and found the garage engulfed in flames. Firefighters used hoses to protect surrounding structures but the siding on the house at 319 S. Fifth St. was damaged, as was a garage in the rear of 323 S. Fifth St., the fire department reported. AEP was called to disconnect power lines damaged by the fire. The fire department reported all the structures involved are vacant. The fire department’s fire inspector is attempting to determine a cause of the fire. Bridge closes after portion falls WHEELING — Traffic was moving again on the Wheeling Suspension Bridge by mid-morning Thursday after a 4-foot piece of sidewalk was reported missing from the structure around 5 a.m. According to Dave Sada, bridge engineer with the West Virginia Division of Highways’ district office, a large piece of fiber reinforced grating disappeared from the Wheeling Island side of the bridge about 50 feet from the traffic light at the west side of the span. “There was a piece of sidewalk that is fiber-reinforced grading, and it was missing,” Sada said. “I don’t know if a car jumped the curb and busted it, but there were no pieces or slivers around it. It was clean, and there was a piece of sidewalk missing.” West Virginia Division of Highways crews were mobilized after the missing piece was reported, and the bridge was shut down for safety reasons. Wheeling police crews patrolled both sides of the bridge in order to deter traffic and pedestrians from entering the area. The bridge was closed from around 5 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Sada said the sidewalk is now repaired and “as good as new.” It was replaced with an extra piece of material left from a renovation project in the late 1990s. Ridings to face state charges WHEELING — Joshua Ridings is set to serve 40 years in federal prison for the abduction and rape of a Wheeling girl, but that may not be the extent of his punishment for those crimes. Ohio County Prosecutor Scott Smith said Thursday that Ridings was indicted in January by an Ohio County grand jury on five counts of kidnapping, five counts of sexual assault in the first degree and five counts of second-degree sexual assault. If convicted, he could face life in state prison in addition to the 40 years in federal prison. Ridings pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to the Feb. 20, 2007, abduction and rape of an 11-year-old North Wheeling girl. He grabbed the child from an alley near her home, drove her to a church property near St. Clairsville and raped her before returning her to a residential area of Bridgeport. Smith said Ridings’ federal plea has no effect on the Ohio County charges, noting his office will proceed with the prosecution of Ridings in Ohio County Circuit Court. “We will begin efforts to have Joshua M. Ridings transported to the circuit court in Ohio County for arraignment as soon as possible,” Smith said. He was unable to estimate any time or date for the arraignment. “I would like to have him here within a week,” Smith said. He added that he will seek to have state incarceration added to the federal sentence if Ridings is convicted in Ohio County.