Judge OKs suit by Erie, Pa.'s 1st female firefighter

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge says a wrongful-firing suit filed by Erie’s first female firefighter can go forward, even though she has acknowledged setting fire to clothes in a bathtub in hopes the smoke would kill her.

City officials claim they fired 48-year-old Mary Wolski for setting the fire in December 2006, in her father’s vacant home. She was hired in 1997.

Wolski sued in 2008, claiming the firing was motivated not by the fire but because she was battling depression, which she claims violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

A federal judge has refused the city’s request to dismiss the suit saying a jury should decide whether Wolski’s disability was a factor in her firing.

No trial date has been set. A city attorney tells the Erie Times-News officials still believe the firing was justified.