WESTBROOK, Maine (AP) -- An on-call firefighter accused of setting three fires had a juvenile record that would have prevented him from being hired if it had shown up on a background check, the city's fire chief said.
Phillip Caron, 20, was charged last week with setting a fire in a garage in Portland. He also was charged with setting a fire that destroyed a Gorham barn in June and another at a Westbrook house construction site in August.
Fire Chief Gary Littlefield said Caron admitted to starting a fire in 2000 when he was 16 and painting swastikas on tombstones a year later. Either offense would have been enough to disqualify a job applicant, he said.
Tina Crellin, Westbrook's director of human resources, said she doesn't believe the city's background-checking service looks into juvenile records.
Littlefield declined to say whether Caron's father, Westbrook Deputy Fire Chief Gary Caron, ever disclosed his son's juvenile record before Phillip Caron was hired last year. ``I think it's irrelevant,'' he said.
Westbrook has about 50 on-call firefighters who supplement the force on about half of the department's emergency calls. Unlike the city's two dozen career firefighters, they are not full-time employees.
