VT arson scandal; Chief tries again on fireworks ban; MD house fire; Long-time actor; FF retires at 80
Vermont chief resigns after after son and 5 other FFs charged in arson ring
Excerpts from the Rutland Herald:
Wallingford Fire Chief Warren Allen resigned early this evening and six of his firefighters — including the chief’s sons, who were ranking officers in the department — are facing arson and related charges for allegedly setting fires around town, Vermont State Police said today.
Police said they believe the six firefighters were responsible for between 18 and 23 suspicious fires, or had direct knowledge at the time the fires were set. Police said the charges were a mix of felonies and misdemeanors.
Police listed the accused as Charlie Woods, 17, Deputy Chief Jeff Allen, 24, Capt. George Allen, 24, Matt Burnham, 19, Lynn Wade, 17 and Jeremy Duchesne, 22, and said each was a member of the Wallingford Volunteer Fire Department at the time of the incidents.
Detective Sgt. James Cruise, a fire investigator for the Vermont State Police, said a seventh firefighter was aware of the arson after the fact and may not be charged.
Because some of the fires were on U.S. Forest Service land, Cruise said the suspects may also face federal charges
Cruise said the group appeared to have started the fires in order to respond to the calls and put them out.
“They like the excitement of it,” he said, pointing out the youthful age of the suspects.
Cruise said the majority of the fires were brush fires, and police listed locations including the access to Elfin Lake, the Church Street Cemetery, the Long Trail access and another spot on Route 140, Ice Bed Road, the Hartsboro fishing access, Dugway road and several sand pits.
One structure fire is attributed to the suspects, police said — the school bus shelter on Hartsboro Road.
DC chief still wants to ban fireworks sales in DC
When he fist told me this last July 3, I knew Chief Dennis Rubin was going to have an uphill battle banning the red, white and blue stands that start to crop up this time of year. Now Chief Rubin and Mayor Adrian Fenty are up for a second round with the City Council in their effort to ban fireworks sales in the District of Columbia. Click here to see the story.
Video from 2-alarm house fire in MD
Click here to see some chopper shots of the large house fire in Potomac, MD Wednesday morning. Montgomery County firefighters called a second-alarm for a fire that started on a rear deck. The video is from about an hour and ten minutes into the fire.
No Oscar for his acting role, but he gets the prize
For three years Richard Borden has been the acting chief of the Haverhill, MA Fire Department. Now he gets the gig for real. Read why it took so long.
FF retires at 80
Most people will probably tell you Timothy Travers looks 10-years younger than his 80-years-of-age. Still Travers believes firefighting is a “young man’s game” and that’s why he is giving up and retiring as an on-call firefighter in Whitman, MA. Read the story.
FM demoted over threats and more
From Madison, WI, the attorney general has demoted a state fire marshal who led a mass murder investigation. Excerpts from the Chicago Tribune:
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen demoted state fire marshal and senior homicide investigator Carolyn Kelly on Wednesday, saying she threatened the lives of his executive staff, slowed the release of records in a mass murder in Crandon and obstructed an investigation into her conduct.
Van Hollen stripped Kelly of her law enforcement and supervisory duties and bumped her back to an analyst position, cutting her pay by $34,000 a year.
“She made repeated comments showing her great distaste for a number of people in the executive branch and people who had been civil servants in the Department of Justice for years who were working on the open records aspect of the Crandon case,” Van Hollen said. “We’re talking about a sworn law enforcement officer who is making life threats … I’ve never seen anybody or heard anybody even come close to this type of commentary.”
Kelly’s attorney Dan Bach called the demotion unfair.
Off-duty Forest County Sheriff’s Deputy Tyler Peterson gunned down six young people, including his former girlfriend, at a party Oct. 7. He killed himself in the woods hours later as police closed in.
The Justice Department took over the case hours after it began, with Kelly, who doubled as the leader of the agency’s special assignments bureau, in the lead.
The case generated intense media interest. According to a group of Kelly’s e-mails released Wednesday, Van Hollen’s executive staff was trying to contact investigative agents directly days after the shooting to see what records could be released.
Kelly and her supervisor, Jim Warren, the administrator of DOJ’s criminal investigation unit, saw that as micromanagement. Kelly instructed her agents in an Oct. 12 e-mail to pass any requests for information from Van Hollen’s appointees to her or Warren.
Over the next three months, she e-mailed Warren several times wondering if $50 was the going rate for a “hit,” whether she could get group rates for hits on three or four people and where she should advertise for a hit man on Craigslist.
Van Hollen said she referred to his staff in another e-mail as “weasels.” In another, she told Warren she was sick and hoped her germs would spread to eighth floor of the Risser Justice Center, where Van Hollen and his staff work.
