New York Firefighter Set Fire After Not Getting Award

CAMBRIA, N.Y. (AP) - That firefighter of year award Tammy Lagowski wanted so badly isn't likely to come her way any time soon -- now that she's charged with arson.

Authorities say the 20-year-old member of a suburban Buffalo volunteer fire company was so upset at being passed over for firefighter of the year honors that she went and torched a vacant building earlier this month.

Sheriff's deputies in Niagara County say Lagowski was angry over not getting the award at the dinner held by a Cheektowaga fire company on January eighth. Deputies say later that night, she and a 20-year-old male companion set a fire that destroyed a building in Cambria, a rural town northeast of Buffalo.

They were arrested the next day and charged with arson, burglary and criminal mischief.

Lagowski has been suspended from her fire company.