Erie’s Fired Fire-Setting Firefighter Keeps Fighting
the Fire Department.
JUST LIKE THE PROVERBIAL BAD PENNY, former Erie, Pennsylvania, firefighter Mary Wolski keeps coming back and has popped up in court again trying to sue the city and the fire department.
1997 photo of Mary Wolski
(Erie Times-News)
Wolski, now age 48, first made news back in 1997 when she became Erie’s first female firefighter. Ten years later, though, she was terminated after she admitted to setting a fire in her father’s house. On March 25, 2008, Firegeezer reported (HERE):
On April 11 of last year Fire Chief Tony Pol wrote her a letter of termination and detailed what Pol said was her attempt to set her father’s house on fire.
Pol wrote that Wolski disconnected the smoke detectors in the house, located in the 1800 block of East 34th Street. He said she took an overdose of medication before starting a fire.
He wrote that firefighters were dispatched to the home but that Wolski’s family members managed to extinguish the fire before they arrived. He said Wolski had to be transported to a Pittsburgh hospital by helicopter for emergency medical treatment.
“This incident renders you presumptively unsuited to be a firefighter, as you pose an ongoing threat to the safety of the public, other firefighters and yourself,” Pol wrote.
She appealed the termination to the Civil Service Commission, but they upheld the dismissal and added: “(S)etting a fire … is the single most significant act a fire fighter may not commit. The act of establishing a fire in a residence is wholly incompatible with the role of the fire fighter….”
Still not taking “no” for an answer, Wolski appealed the decision before the Erie County Court claiming that, the case “lacks substantial evidence” to support its decision. The following month she unexpectedly dropped the lawsuit without any explanation. (See Firegeezer report HERE.)
Now she’s back in court again, this time the U. S. District Court in Erie. The Times-News is reporting this morning:
A former Erie firefighter dismissed for setting a fire in a bathtub can pursue a discrimination case against the city in federal court in Erie.
U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin rejected the city’s request that he dismiss the 2008 suit of the former firefighter, Mary Wolski. She set the fire, in which she ignited clothes in the tub, during a suicide attempt.
Wolski is claiming the city violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by firing her because she suffered from severe depression — not because of the fire. The city said Wolski was let go because of the fire, which she set in 2006.
The city is prepared to go to trial, a date for which has not been set, Deputy City Solicitor Gerald Villella said. He said the city will continue to argue it was justified in firing Wolski because she set the fire.
Read the full story of this latest chapter that was told yesterday HERE.
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