Lawrence man arrested after break-in at fire station, false alarm

A break-in at Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Station 5 sent police and firefighters to 1911 Stewart Ave. early Thursday, interrupting operations at one of the city’s most important public-safety sites and ending with a Lawrence man in jail.

Officers were dispatched around 1:30 a.m. June 4 after the fire alarm was pulled at the station, according to police. Firefighters at the scene directed officers to the suspect, who was found in a kitchen area with blood on his hands. Police said the man admitted he had broken a window in the truck bay to get inside.

Douglas County Jail booking records identified the suspect as John Kingangi Mwithiga, 31, of Lawrence. He was booked on four misdemeanor charges: criminal damage to property, criminal trespass, false fire alarm and possession of drug paraphernalia.

No firefighters were injured, but the incident forced an emergency response at a facility that is built to answer emergencies, not absorb them. Station 5 is listed by the City of Lawrence at 1911 Stewart Ave., Lawrence, Kansas 66046, and the department says its Administration Office is at Station No. 5 at 19th and Iowa. The city also lists the EMS Division in the administration building next to Station No. 5, making the site more than a neighborhood firehouse.

The city’s fire-medical contacts page lists Joe Hardy as acting fire chief. That same page includes Station 5 among the department’s station locations, underscoring that the building functions as a central hub for Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical, not just a place where a truck sleeps between calls.

The arrest highlights a vulnerability that goes beyond a single broken window. When someone gets inside a fire station, pulls an alarm and triggers a response, firefighters and police are pulled away from other calls while they secure the building and assess the risk. In a city where a station houses the administration office and EMS operations as well as fire apparatus, even a short disruption can carry public cost.

Police also said Mwithiga told officers he was seeing people while looking at a blank wall. The case now moves into the court process, with the charges centered on damage, trespass, the false alarm and the drug paraphernalia allegation.