A longtime local firefighter who held command and training positions has resigned after allegations he sexually harassed multiple women, including fellow firefighters, during his career.
Brian Kazmierzak resigned March 2 from the Penn Township Fire Department, according to a statement released on behalf of Chief John VanBruaene and township trustee Doris Portolese. Kazmierzak had most recently held the position of battalion chief, and he made frequent appearances at training events and in the media.
Kazmierzak’s resignation came amid a weekslong investigation by ABC57 into the harassment allegations, the station reported. The station reported it spoke with more than a dozen women who said Kazmierzak had harassed them.
One of the women, Christine Peterson, said she contacted ABC57 after seeing an interview with Kazmierzak about the danger of extreme winter weather for firefighters. Upset by Kazmierzak’s TV appearance, she shared her experience and encouraged other victims to come forward.
In an interview with The Tribune on Friday, Peterson said Kazmierzak sent her harassing messages on at least a dozen occasions between 2003 and 2014.
“He would always be talking about wanting you to participate in sexual and explicit activities with him,” she said.
Peterson, a paramedic instructor at Ivy Tech Community College, said she has heard from women who say Kazmierzak harassed them as recently as 2017 and 2019.
The Tribune was unable to find working contact information for Kazmierzak on Friday. Two phone numbers listed in a public records database were disconnected.
The statement from Penn Township officials said they first received a complaint about Kazmierzak in 2013, from a woman who was not employed by the township. The woman said Kazmierzak had sent her messages “of a sexual nature” through his personal Facebook account. The woman did not disclose the “content of the messages” to Penn’s fire chief, the statement said.
According to the statement, VanBruaene confronted Kazmierzak about the complaint, but he denied the allegations.
Officials did not receive any more complaints about Kazmierzak until several years later, when the same woman complained that he was going to a training event that she also was attending, the statement said. The statement said Kazmierzak was not attending the training event on behalf of the department, but for his own training business.
Recently, Penn Township officials again received complaints, this time anonymously, about alleged sexual harassment by Kazmierzak via Facebook in 2013, the statement said.
But records show Kazmierzak had already been disciplined for similar behavior before 2013, while he was working at Penn. In 2011, while Kazmierzak was a division chief with Clay Fire Territory, superiors learned he had sent sexually suggestive Facebook messages to a female firefighter from another local department. In the messages, Kazmierzak said the woman looked “HOTTTTT” in her firefighting gear.
“I am a HUGE flirt and in general a VERY naughty boy,” he added. “So hopefully u don’t get offended easily.”
Clay Fire Territory decided to suspend Kaczmierzak for four weeks, demote him from division chief to captain and require him to abide by terms that included “frequent” monitoring of his internet usage at work. He resigned in May 2012, after 16 years with the department.
After resigning from Clay, he applied for a job with the White River Township Fire Department, near Indianapolis. The department obtained a copy of his personnel file from Clay, and he was never hired.
It’s unclear exactly how much Penn Township officials knew of Kazmierzak’s record when they hired him. The Penn Township chief, VanBruaene, would not comment when reached by phone Friday afternoon, and he hung up on a reporter who was asking for a copy of Kazmierzak’s personnel file.
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