ATLANTA (AP) -- The city's fire marshal retired after it was revealed that the Braves' Turner Field - where he had a part-time job - had gone without fire safety permits for years. Officials say a police investigation of the fire department is under way.
``The only thing I can do is clean up the mess that was left me,'' Fire Chief Dennis Rubin told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday. Rubin, hired as fire chief in December, is locking the department's inspection records to prevent tampering.
Rubin used the words ``anomalies'' and ``inappropriate'' to describe why he wanted the inspections investigated, but would not elaborate further.
A police investigation already was under way, Rubin said, when he discovered last week that Turner Field had been operating without fire-safety permits since 1997, the year the park opened.
Nathaniel Grissom, the city's fire marshal, and Liz Summers, director of fire safety education, had been moonlighting at Turner Field for years as in-house fire marshals. Grissom, who had worked for the department for 31 of his 55 years, was stripped of his title last week and abruptly retired Monday.
Grissom and Summers did not return calls Wednesday, the newspaper said.
Still, the chief insisted the new investigation was unrelated, but said the stadium situation was among the anomalies that prompted the investigation.
``It's not Turner Field,'' he said. ``It's a separate issue I'm chasing after.'' He had said last week that he would check the records of all public venues in Atlanta, including bars, concert halls and other sports venues.
Atlanta police, conducting the investigation at Rubin's request, would not comment. Braves spokesman Greg Hughes said the police investigation ``doesn't involve us.''
Fire inspections at Turner Field in March and April revealed 61 and 108 city fire violations respectively. By last week, all violations were corrected.
Rubin said he was continuing an internal investigation into Grissom's employment at Turner Field and added that some fire safety inspectors had resented Grissom's and Summers' apparent lock on extra employment there.
They complained ``they got knocked out of the gravy,'' Rubin said.
Last week, Rubin banned senior fire officials from working at any fire safety-related extra job.
The department has 17 fire safety inspectors for the city and four for the airport. Inspectors are responsible for about 12,000 commercial buildings a year.
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