Lessons in handling the bad news: Efforts to keep fire at firefighter's home from reporters ends careers of chief & assistant chief.
Image from Tempe Fire Department website.
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Take a moment to read this entire article from Laurie Merill from the Arizona Republic about the forced retirement of the chief and assistant chief of the Tempe Fire Department in Arizona. It tells of efforts to keep the story of a suspicious fire at a firefighters home out of the news media. The firefighter was also later accused of assaulting the assistant chief the night of the fire.
If their goal was to keep the story a secret it obviously did not work. It has now made the news in a big way and resulted in a shake up at the top of the department. Here’s an excerpt:
Tempe’s fire chief and assistant fire chief retired from their posts last month after an independent investigation found they had committed serious errors during a suspicious fire at the home of a firefighter in their department, according to city officials and documents obtained by The Arizona Republic.
The report ended the careers of Assistant Fire Chief Marc Scott, a 34-year veteran, and Fire Chief Mark Simmons, a 31-year veteran. They retired in May after the city manager confronted them with the findings of the investigation.
According to the report by Scottsdale, which was asked to conduct an independent investigation to avoid a possible conflict, Scott and Simmons were more concerned about avoiding a media event than in obtaining justice.
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