Copper fire chief defends hijinks

Around sundown on Saturday, Aug. 29, the two on-duty Copperopolis Fire Protection District trucks pulled into the parking lot in front of Micki and Larry’s Sports Pub with lights flashing.

Inside the bar were district board member John Maness and his son Nick, 20, a district firefighter, taking part in revelries at Nick’s bachelor party.

What happened next was, depending on who you ask, either a mark of the district’s rediscovered esprit de corps or an abuse of taxpayer dollars that put lives at risk.

Three firefighters pulled the younger Maness into the parking lot and, one man holding each arm, sprayed him in the face and groin with a fire hose.
   

“I was like: What in the world is going on here?” said Michael Shirley, a Cal Fire captain and former firefighter with the Copperopolis district. Shirley came upon the scene as he was driving home from Sonora that evening.

“To me, in today’s budgetary climate, it just totally surprised me to see this type of behavior out in public,” Shirley said. “This type of stuff wasn’t tolerated in public when I was there.”

“To me, it was all about camaraderie,” said Keith Cantrell, district fire chief, who said he authorized the trip after firefighter Jason Robitaille proposed going to the bachelor party at the pub. “Honestly, I didn’t think it was an issue.”

Cantrell, who said he can’t recall another such incident during his 18 years at the district, said that if his team came to him tomorrow with a similar request, he would not approve it.

“At this point no, because obviously the public is upset that this is happening,” he said.

Similar hijinks at fire stations near and far have not come cheaply.

In 2007, a pair of lawsuits were filed alleging hazing at the Columbia College Fire Department, one involving charges that trainees were held and sprayed with a fire hose.

The complaints prevented the program from responding to off-campus calls for about eight months and triggered a decline in program registration.

One of the cases was ultimately settled on reduced charges, while the other was dismissed because the trial started without the prosecutor’s chief investigator, who was on a cruise in the Bahamas.

Further from home, the City of Los Angeles paid $1.43 million in 2007 to a black firefighter who alleged racial discrimination after he was served a spaghetti dinner mixed with dog food.

His co-workers claimed they were playing on his nickname, “Big Dog.”

Former Copper Fire paramedic Hugh Braly said stunts like the August hose-down are part of being a Copperopolis firefighter, whether it is aftershave in your workboots, an unexpected bucket of water in the face or an “initiation” for those about to be married.

“That just goes along with being in the department,” he said.

In fact, Cantrell, Braly and the elder Maness, who is a volunteer firefighter with the department, said the incident demonstrated a unity the department had lacked under previous management.

“I was an observer there,” Maness said. “What I saw was exactly what we are trying to promote at Copper Fire.”  

Shirley, however, suggested the district could face liability issues if someone had driven up to an empty station with a medical emergency during the incident.

“Imagine if somebody drove a loved one that was having a heart attack to the fire station while this incident was taking place and found nobody available to help them,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Cantrell guessed such drive-ups happen a few times a year and said the person would simply have to dial 911. Crews are away from the station “way more” than they are there, he said.

Cantrell and the elder Maness said the complaint could be equally extended to the variety of charity events the district conducts, from Christmas tree lightings to ride-alongs and the annual “Fill the Boot” fundraiser, all of which occupy staff time and vehicles.

Had Nick Maness or others violated the law, it would have required investigation, Cantrell said.

“I would certainly look into it and see if discipline was appropriate or not,” he said.

The elder Maness said the bar was closed for the party and thus minors were permitted. Micki Phillips, owner of the bar, declined to comment.

Shirley, on the other hand, feels all employees who planned and took part in the incident should be disciplined.

An off-duty firefighter who took a district vehicle home last year while possibly drunk was demoted due to his actions, Shirley said.

Cantrell said he could not comment on personnel issues.

Shirley also argues the conduct of the firefighters violated the district’s employee code of conduct, notably a rule stating on-duty employees should “be governed by the ordinary and reasonable rules of behavior” and not bring “discredit” on the district.

Shirley said he left the department about two years ago for a promotion with Cal Fire, a point Cantrell agrees with. But Braly, Maness and Maness’ fellow board members questioned Shirley’s motives.

The elder Maness said Shirley was passed up for a promotion as fire chief and subsequently left the district.

Whether the hazing that is common in fire districts across the country is integral to a successful firefighter squad has long been debated.

Ronny J. Coleman, former California Fire Marshal, addressed the issue in a 1999 essay in Fire Chief magazine titled, “Can We Forge Camaraderie Without Hazing?”

Colman begins by writing “(I) don’t believe that all hazing is for benevolent reasons, but I do believe that there’s still a compelling need for all firefighters to be tested and found worthy to be part of a team that could be exposed to life-threatening situations. Is this an unresolvable dilemma?”

He concluded, however, that hazing is an antiquated practice and offered three alternatives.

Hazing was “a system that was flawed in some ways, but it had a noble goal: to pick the best to protect the rest,” he writes.