Volunteer Firefighters Under Investigation

[WAS967 97]

http://www.wten.com/Global/story.asp?S=248...mp;nav=6uyNSQwd

Volunteer Firefighters Under Investigation

(posted: October 26th, 7:30pm)

A criminal investigation may be underway, after three volunteer

firefighters, one of them a State Trooper, allegedly made prank 911 calls,

and ran off with the responding officer's patrol car.

Mayor John Romano of the Village of Ballston Spa said the volunteers were

drinking at the firehouse on October 16th when they made the prank calls to

the nearby village police.

Sources identified them as Matthew Wilski, an off-duty State Trooper, Dan

Juresak an off-duty village police dispatcher, and another volunteer Charles

Travis.

The Mayor said this is no laughing matter. When the cop responded in a

police cruiser to the firehouse, the Mayor said the volunteers took the car

and drove it back to the police station.

We were unable to reach the Police Chief to verify if a criminal

investigation would be conducted. State Police said an internal affairs

investigation is underway into Trooper Matthew Wilski, a six year veteran.

District Attorney Jim Murphy said he is meeting with the Police Chief and

the Mayor tomorrow to decide where to go with this incident, falsely

reporting an incident is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

[WAS967 97]

ageous that Public Safety Commissioner Tom Curley, asked

whether he'd still consider them eligible for hire, hemmed and hawed and

wouldn't rule them out.

You can call 911 as a joke and be considered fit for employment as a

firefighter? That's a bigger joke.

Don't be led off-track by Mayor John Romano's rationale that no harm was

done since no emergency calls were blocked by the prank. That's a red

herring.

Not every false call to 911 results in an arrest; the police exercise

discretion based on the circumstances. In this case, however, given the

parties involved, police should not have looked away.

The men have been publicly humiliated and their professional lives have been

changed for the worse -- the off-duty dispatcher resigned, and the trooper

is the subject of an internal state police investigation. But that doesn't

excuse their immaturity and bad judgment. And if someone hadn't leaked the

incident to the media, the whole thing would have been swept under the rug.

OK, let's review:

- Calling 911 without saying anything, as the people involved claim happened

here, ought to be a crime. Get cracking, state legislators.

- The Saratoga Springs Public Safety commissioner ought to consider these

volunteers ineligible for a job with the city fire department.

- The bar at the volunteer firehouse ought to be locked up and tossed out --

and every municipality ought to be looking at what's going on at their own

stations.

- The Ballston Spa police chief and the Board of Trustees should order a

tape-recording device for their 911 system -- now.

[WAS967 97]

The biggest joke here being the 911 PSAP without the ability to record incoming emergency calls.

[RWC130 594]

Interesting.... They are really dumb!

We all have had a lil fun, practical jokes, etc..

but calling 911 is not funny.

Very poor judgement boys! [-X

[roeems87 0]

Being FFs and POs, the people involved here should know the danger of having a vehicle respond lights and sirens...and yet they still called falsely for one to come... Besides that fact, they stole a police car. Whether they took it back to the police station or not, they stole a police car. If someone took an ambulance for a spin, but returned in 20 minutes later, you'd be damn sure they would be in trouble. Despite that, they were drunk, no? So they were operating a stolen motor vehicle (a police car) drunk...That's enough to put you in jail for a while, never mind the punishment for the fake 911 call.

Moreover, imagine what could have happened there. One: the police officer was called elsewhere for a real emergency where he was truly needed and therefore couldn't get to. Two: He got into an accident on the way to the false call and killed someone else (or himself).

It's just a stupid situation. Never mind not being offered another job, those three should lose the jobs they have now for acting inappropriately. The arguement would be that they weren't at work. Well I would argue, they are emergency services personell taking advantage of a system they work within, fire them.

That's all for this rant.

[DOC22 1]

Those 3 jokers ought to be fired, removed from membership in the FD AND arrested! DAMN FOOLS!!!!!!!!

[Guest pentax02839]

all three should be fired

[Pyroinvestigator 0]

NY Departments Consider Alcohol In Station

JIM KINNEY

Courtesy of The Saratogian

BALLSTON SPA -- While Ballston Spa is rethinking its policy of allowing alcohol in its firehouses, many other volunteer companies around the county are either dry or thinking of going dry.

'I can remember at parades when they would have cans of beer right there on the truck,' said Don Kugler, chairman of the Board of Commissioners for the Greenfield Fire District.

'I'm going back 30 years. You can't do that anymore,' Kugler said.

Today, the Maple Avenue Fire Company is completely dry, as is the district's Middle Grove Company. He said no beer is stored at the other firehouses in Porter Corners and Greenfield Center and drinking, even during social events there, is rare.

The issue came up last week when three Ballston Spa volunteer firefighters resigned from the village fire department for making fake 911 calls and moving the village police car sent to investigate the calls.

The three men -- Dan Jurcsak, Matt Wilski and Charles Travis -- said they'd been drinking after setting up a Halloween party Oct. 17 at the Eagle-Matt Lee firehouse.

Last week, Ballston Spa Fire Chief Dick Duffy said the department would rethink policies allowing alcohol at its two firehouses, Eagle-Matt Lee and Union.

Duffy couldn't be reached for comment this week.

Village Mayor John Romano said Friday the policy hasn't been changed yet, but he plans to meet with Duffy soon and discuss a change.

Kugler said it's not scenarios like Ballston Spa's that worry him. It's something much worse.

'What if one of those boys had gotten in an accident on his way home and killed himself?' he said. 'It's our necks out there.'

Schuylerville Fire Chief Rick Drew said Schuyler Hose Co. has been dry for as long as he can remember.

'There is just no place for it,' Drew said.

He thinks drinking in firehouses is becoming rare.

Corinth Fire Chief Andy Kelley said there is alcohol consumed at the Corinth Firehouse, but only at social events. There is no alcohol at anything fire-related, and firefighters don't even drink at the firehouse after their drills.

He said no one who has consumed alcohol ever has anything to do with responding to a fire or dealing with fire equipment.

Corinth is planning to build a new firehouse on Route 9N in Corinth. That facility may be dry.

'Nobody wants the black eye,' Kelley said.

What about westchester?