Larocque worked an average of at least nine hours of overtime per week, or the equivalent of 12 weeks of extra work per year, The Providence Journal reported.
The Town of West Warwick disclosed the payments earlier this month in response to a Journal request, under the state Access to Public Records Law.
Larocque logged the overtime inspecting buildings, reviewing construction plans, investigating the cause of fires, and filling in for regular-duty firefighters who were out, according to Town Manager Wolfgang Bauer and Fire Chief Charles D. Hall.
Hall said the situation had nothing to do with the unsafe conditions at The Station. He said that Larocque is accurate and conscientious in his work.
The Station burned to the ground on Feb. 20 last year, killing 100 people. Six weeks before, Larocque had complained in a letter that his office was ``severely understaffed'' and called himself a ``one-man fire prevention division.''
Larocque, 48, declined to comment for this story.
A few months before the Station fire, the Town Council approved a plan to train another firefighter to become an assistant fire marshal. The firefighter completed the training shortly before the fire, and began work soon afterward.
Even with the assistant, the fire-prevention office reported that it was unable to catch up on its backlog of work, and the Fire Department assigned a third firefighter to the office last October. The third inspector stayed in the office until this month.
Before the fire, in addition to his fire-prevention duties, Larocque had been on the ``callback'' list to fill in for other officers who were out sick or on vacation.
Last fall, Hall said, he removed Larocque from the list to give him more time to devote to his normal duties.
