A year ago, a passerby knocked on the door of Elizabeth Borough Fire Chief Leonard Bailey Jr.'s home to warn him about a blaze at an abandoned bar just down the street.

Chief Bailey, 56, grabbed his radio and started to run toward the fire. He then suffered a fatal heart attack.

Last week, Allegheny County police charged Rodger Matthews, the man they say alerted Chief Bailey, with starting the fire at the bar -- and causing the chief's death.

"My husband would still be alive if it weren't for him," Linda Bailey said yesterday.

The fire broke out in the early morning of Sept. 12 at Phield's Bar on Water Street. County fire marshals determined it was arson.

A witness told police that Mr. Matthews was walking his dog nearby at the time of the fire.

Police described the 49-year-old Elizabeth man as a drifter, and in the last two years, he has been charged with criminal mischief and burglary in connection with at least three incidents, court records say. He was arrested in McKeesport on Aug. 29.

"It was a yearlong investigation," said county police Det. Lewis Ferguson. "It took that long to develop witnesses, to find him."

According to a criminal complaint, Mr. Matthews told police that, three days before the fire, he and another person broke into Phield's bar to burglarize the empty building.

Mr. Matthews later decided to destroy any fingerprints left behind. He returned with a two-gallon can of gasoline, the complaint says. He poured the gasoline onto the floor and ignited it, using a cigarette lighter.

He knew Chief Bailey lived on the street, Det. Ferguson said, so he knocked on the chief's door.

Chief Bailey fell and died in the doorway, just as he was heading to the fire.

The borough's current fire chief, Chad Rager, said he and Chief Bailey each lived a block away from the station, and they almost always jumped aboard the fire engine at the same time, with Chief Bailey in the driver's seat.

This time, the chief wasn't there.

"Where's Lenny?" Chief Rager asked the other firefighters.

They headed out, and Chief Rager said he saw Mr. Matthews walking up the street. He pointed them toward the fire.

Mr. Matthews has been charged with risking catastrophe, criminal mischief, burglary, arson, recklessly endangering another person and homicide.

Chief Bailey's death was a shock in the borough, where he had been a firefighter for 35 years and chief for nine years.

He was a graduate of Elizabeth High School, and he owned a repair garage that specialized in Volkswagens. He was also a borough councilman.

"He was like the center of the town," Chief Rager said.

The borough's fire hall also was near his garage, so he was always ready to respond to any call.

"He'd be working on a car and, whenever that whistle went off, he would drop whatever he was doing," Mrs. Bailey said.

A preliminary hearing for Mr. Matthews is scheduled for Sept. 19.