Man charged after 21-hour standoff atop Bethlehem SteelStacks

BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- A man who authorities say climbed atop the rusting blast furnace at a former eastern Pennsylvania steel mill, prompting evacuation of an arts and entertainment venue now at the site, is now facing a felony charge of risking a catastrophe.

Twenty-five-year-old Jonathan David Wallace of Mertztown was also charged Sunday with reckless endangering and defiant trespass following the more-than-21-hour ordeal at the old Bethlehem Steel Corp. site.

Events at the SteelStacks campus were postponed or canceled as the man balanced on a beam hundreds of feet above. Officers climbed to a platform below and talked to him for hours before his arrest Saturday afternoon.

Court documents don't list an attorney for Wallace; messages left at numbers listed for him weren't immediately returned Sunday.