Two Ashley borough firefighters have been charged with making more than 30 unfounded and/or fictitious emergency calls to Luzerne County 911, according to charges filed in court.

The defendants — Zachary Xavier Gensel, 19, of Ashley, and Cody Allen Wilson, 21, of Sugar Notch —face multiple misdemeanor counts of false alarm to a public safety agency.

According to the probable cause affidavit:

County detectives met with county 911 officials in May about an abundance of false 911 calls placed to the county communications center from Jan. 1, 2025, through May 27 this year.

County 911 officials said they discovered, while internally investigating an unrelated matter, that Gensel, a former 911 worker, sent a 911 text message while on duty at 911.

Gensel’s shift supervisor recognized the text message was sent from Gensel’s phone number. This discovery prompted 911 officials to investigate false alarms.

Aware that Gensel was an Ashley Fire Department captain, county 911 officials reviewed calls involving that fire department.

During the query, 911 officials discovered more than 30 unfounded and/or fictitious emergency calls were placed from the phone numbers of Gensel and Wilson, who was also an active member of the Ashley Fire Department.

“Upon review of the false emergency calls that were placed, it was discovered that both the defendant and co-defendant provided fictitious names, along with their real names, to the 911 call takers that received these calls,” stated the criminal complaint.

The false calls they reported included a variety of structure fires, vehicle crashes, smoke investigations, false fire alarms, burning complaints, flooded roadways, downed wires, and vehicle fires — all deemed unfounded by fire, police, and emergency medical responders, it said.

The defendants met with investigators in June and said there were times they both met at the fire department and “were bored.”

The men said there have been many times they called 911 and provided different names and call-back phone numbers, and that they were together when the false calls were reported.

During the interviews, the defendants acknowledged “what they were doing was wrong and was illegal,” and they eventually became concerned because the fire chief was becoming suspicious due to the influx of emergency calls to their department.

Gensel received $19.35 per hour as a 911 telecommunicator and was terminated from the position May 21, according to county personnel records.

Ashley Fire Department representatives could not immediately be reached for comment on whether Gensel and Wilson are still with the department.