Concerns About Fire Department Certifications
Town Says Former Fire Chief Was Not a Certified Firefighter
One of the most important sources of information for the Nottingham Blog are the private and sometimes anonymous tips sent in by readers. I recently received two tips about certifications in the Fire Department.
Town Says Former Fire Chief Was Not a Certified Firefighter
One tip came from a person who has been elected to public office in town. The tip was that former Fire Chief Vilchock was not certified as a firefighter. I asked the Town for confirmation. Town Administrator White responded: “I have been told that former Chief Jaye Vilchock did not hold any certification as a Firefighter, only as an EMT.” This makes one wonder, why did the Board of Selectmen appoint a person as Fire Chief for 17 years who held no firefighting certifications?
Town Says Deputy Fire Chief Did Not Have CPR Certification
Another tip was that Deputy Fire Chief Pederson’s CPR certification had lapsed. The response I got was that he received his certification in May 2024 and that the Town has no record of prior certification.
Caveat
Both of these issues are likely to really be about the Town’s record-keeping rather than public safety. But without records, who knows?
Legally, per the RSA, there are no training or education requirements to be a fire chief. It's up to the municipality to have a written job description outlining the duties, education, and certifications required for the job. It's actually not unheard of that some small towns in NH where the chief is "elected" by the department members, there is no job description at the town level, since the BOS is usually just a consent vote that they agree with the FD members on who their leader should be.
Same thing applies to the Deputy Chief. You are only required to have a CPR certification if you hold an EMS license of any level, unless the town has a specific policy or its written in a job description that a CPR cert is required.
People grasping at straws to drum up drama.
There are no state training or certification requirements for call and volunteer firefighters.
Are we assuming that the current Chief, Curry, is not certified, was the building inspector certified?
Does it matter?
We’re talking 3 Chiefs ago….
Sadly, at this point we have all become fully aware that ‘the Town’ has a well documented history of taking spurious statements and running with them head first into a wall.
I now wonder what the former Chief or his attorneys have to say about these new, and seemingly spontaneous allegations that he wasn’t a certified firefighter……
Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not.
Considering the Chief was terminated over a year ago, maybe ‘the town’ or this appointed official, should ask themselves if it even matters at this point?
Like the the previous commenter mentioned this is nothing more than someone attempting to stir up more drama, as if Nottingham has a shortage of that!
Where’s the 91A request about the Town Beach deal?