By Derrick Nunnally
The Philadelphia Inquirer
POTTSTOWN, Pa. — When a volunteer firefighter got lost after drinking into Saturday morning at St. Gabriel’s Lodge in West Pottsgrove, he got mad and started setting fires along his path, authorities said.
And when local firefighters arrived to hose down the flames at a neighbor’s shed, Charles Sluzenski — who had found his way back to his mother’s house — dashed drunkenly forth in full firefighting gear and asked to help.
“Put me in, Chief, I’m a volunteer firefighter,” Sluzenski, 23, said, according to an affidavit.
Pottstown Fire Department Battalion Chief Chad Quinter demurred, even though Sluzenski was a volunteer firefighter with companies in Chester and Montgomery counties.
Instead, Quinter waved over police. They arrested Sluzenski at the scene for public intoxication and resisting arrest.
Investigators found three fires had been set along a veering line from the bar to Sluzenski’s home.
Sluzenski told police he had used a lighter to set each fire. Thursday morning, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman announced 12 arson-related felony counts against Sluzenski.
“What in the world would possess a firefighter to go and set a fire?” she asked. “There’s really no good answer.”
Sluzenski, who is unemployed and lives with his mother on West Chestnut Street in Pottstown, has been on probation since 2008 from a vandalism case and has a pending DUI charge, court records show.
His bail was set at $50,000 cash Thursday afternoon.
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