Fire Rescue News - Firefighter dilemma: When not to respond, Some volunteers who have been drinking make that decision
The people who put out fires in most of South Dakota aren't waiting at the station for the next emergency. They're probably at work, at home on the couch, or - in some cases when the timing is bad - inside a bar.
Seventy percent of South Dakotans - 95 percent of the state's square miles - are served by....Continue Reading
unpaid volunteer firefighters.
One of those volunteers, 43-year-old Scott Johnson of Madison, was arrested two weeks ago after he drove a fire truck to a false alarm following a work shift at a nearby bar, and possibly some drinking. He was charged with first-offense DUI.
The case drew media attention and stirred emotions in the Lake County town of 6,600. But it also highlights the best and worst qualities of the volunteer model that forms what State Fire Marshal Al Christie calls "the backbone of the fire service."
The loose network of about 7,500 firefighters who make up the roughly 350 recognized volunteer departments in South Dakota largely is unregulated. Each department writes its own rules and sets its own standards. There are no state training requirements for volunteer firefighters.
The system works - and works well, for the most part - through a combination of kinship, peer pressure and a shared sense of responsibility.
Tea Fire Chief Grant Van Riesen's department has adopted a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol use, but it's never easy for a experienced firefighter to stay home when an emergency situation arises.
"These guys think they have to provide that service," Van Riesen said. "They just have a certain kind of blood in them that tells them they need to respond."
Firefighter was working at bar before arrest
Scott Johnson finished working Sept. 5 at Teezers Bar in downtown Madison, about a half hour before a faulty sensor set off the fire alarm at Falcon Plastics.
He checks identifications, works security and helps bartenders at Teezers on the weekends, according to owner Jeff Gates. Gates said Johnson had been in Sioux Falls earlier in the evening, but he was sober enough to do the job and worked until the bar closed at 2 a.m.
"He was absolutely fine," Gates said. "Scott would absolutely never put anybody's life in jeopardy by going out if he couldn't handle it."
When the fire call came in at 2:30 a.m., Johnson was among about a dozen firefighters to respond, according to Chief Jerry Johnson . The manufacturing plant is less than a mile from the fire station.
Madison Patrol Officer Aaron Talich also responded. The officer had seen Scott Johnson at Teezers earlier that night. Talich followed Scott Johnson to the station after the false alarm and administered a breathalyzer test before citing him.
Madison Police Chief Chuck Pulford declined to discuss the results of the breath test or the details of the case as it moves through the court system.
On Thursday, Johnson pleaded not guilty to the charge of first-offense DUI through his lawyer, Dan Brown. Had Johnson pleaded guilty, Lake County State's Attorney Tim Meyers was prepared to read a statement including Johnson's blood-alcohol content into the public court record.
Because he pleaded not guilty, the prosecutor's office won't release the results of his blood-alcohol test.
Support for volunteer; police defend their action
Some Madison residents were upset by the arrest of Johnson, an eight-year veteran of the fire department.
Three letters to the editor pledging support for Johnson and the volunteer department have appeared in the Madison Daily Leader since the first reports on the case were published. Two came from individuals; one was signed "Members of the Madison Volunteer Fire Department."
Henry Hauck of Wentworth wrote one of the letters. He said firefighters can take care of their own. If Johnson had been too drunk to drive, he said, someone would have stopped him.
Talich could have stopped him, too, Hauck said.
"They watched him over there where the fire was supposed to be and they let him get back in the truck and drive away," he said.
The department's letter apologized to the city, saying Johnson made a "mistake in judgment" and that the rest of the firefighters will learn from that mistake.
