ALLEGHENY TWP — Before Wednesday’s melee at Western PA Child Care that left at least eight staff members injured, Allegheny Township Supervisor Chairman Charles Stowe can’t recall there being such a violent incident at the facility.

“We never had any issues in the past,” he said. “In fact, they have a work crew that goes out and will do community service work, like painting and cleaning things up. Emlenton Borough uses them a great deal.

“They did a lot of good in the community.”

The brawl took place at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Western PA Child Care facility, involving up to 40 youths and leaving at least eight staff members injured.

Township Vice Chairman Darrel Blauser also said this is the first he’s heard of trouble at the facility.

“I haven’t heard of any issues, but that’s not to say that there haven’t been,” he said.

Western PA Child Care has remained quiet on the incident.

In a statement released Thursday, Western PA Child Care said, “Yesterday a brief incident occurred in the cafeteria of our facility in Emlenton, Pa. In addition to our own staff responding to the incident, our protocol requires contacting the police. Normal operations were quickly resumed.

“Inasmuch as this matter pertains to juveniles with privacy rights, we will have no further comments.”

Repeated phone calls to Western PA Child Care were answered with “no comment.”

The brawl began when a group of juveniles in the gym area charged a rival group that was in the cafeteria. A door accidentally left unlocked apparently allowed the two opposing groups — each numbering 15 to 20 — to get at one another.

The juveniles retreated to their pods when police arrived. Most of the juveniles were either unhurt or had minor injuries.

State police Cpl. Tim Morando said investigators continue to review surveillance footage that captured the free-for-all on video.

Following the review and after they’re done talking with employees, Morando said, police plan to charge an undetermined number of detainees.

Authorities believe they have preliminarily identified the main culprits and primary instigators.

“We expect to file charges within the next week or two,” Morando said. “Five (detainees) will be charged with aggravated assault and inciting a riot.”

The facility has the capacity for 99 beds and houses male and female juveniles.

About two-thirds of the male beds are secure; about half of the female beds are secure.

Western PA Child Care, which opened in June 2005 to house juveniles ages 14 to 21, was involved in a bribery scandal in the late 2000s that became known as “kids for cash.” It landed two judges in prison and resulted in a multimillion dollar civil suit.

Former Luzerne County judges Mark Ciavarella Jr. and Michael Conahan were sentenced in 2011 to 28 years and 17½ years, respectively, for accepting a total of $2.1 million from builder Robert Mericle to send juveniles to Western PA Child Care and PA Child Care in Pittston Township, Luzerne County.

Mericle received sentence of a year in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Robert Powell, former owner of Western PA Child Care and PA Child Care, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for concealing a felony and an accessory charge after he paid the judges hundreds of thousands of dollars in return for their support in sending youths to Western PA Child Care and PA Child Care.

A lawsuit brought by thousands of juveniles against PA Child Care, Western PA Child Care and their parent company, Mid-Atlantic Youth Services, led to a $2.5 million settlement by the defendants.

As of February 2009, Western PA Child Care had no juveniles from Butler County. It wasn’t until 2014 that Butler County resumed sending juveniles there.