Two Millbury, Mass. firefighters who worked out of the same firehouse are dealing with sexual assault charges.
One is facing sexual assault charges on a teen, while another just started serving time for sexually assaulting a young girl.
Millbury’s fire department is an on-call department that comes together when the horn blares.
“We don’t have any reason to believe there is a cultural issue at the fire department,” Millbury Town Manager Sean Hendricks said.
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Since December, Colton Paszowski, who is 24, has been off the job. He is accused of raping a 15-year-old girl several times in the fall. Authorities say she knew Paszowski from taking care of her family’s horses.
On Monday, the town formally terminated Fire Captain Walter Swenson. He is serving time for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl over a number of years.
Swenson was with the department for 14 years, Paszowski less than five. None of the admitted or accused assaults happened while they worked as a firefighter.
“The culture of the Millbury Fire Department is to be ready to serve when the horn goes off but there’s nobody hanging around our fire station,” Hendricks said.
Hendricks added that he would be concerned about the culture if the department was full-time, with firefighters spending hours together.
“I would say the bad acts of a couple of individuals shouldn’t serve to indict the past service or current service of any other firefighters,” he said.
Paszowski is on unpaid leave. Since this is an on-call fire department, there are no unions or pensions.
