Ohio Fire Chief Criticized for Untested Air Bottles Fired

After nearly four decades, Bruce Vaughan is not ready to hang up his turnout gear amid the mayor's charges that he was incompetent as chief of the Chillicothe Fire Department.

Citing "inefficient and ineffective management," Mayor Jack Everson fired Vaughan effective yesterday, but the ex-chief plans to appeal his dismissal to the city civil-service commission.

Everson fired the 64-year-old Vaughan after the city's human-resources director conducted a hearing and concluded there was evidence to uphold the mayor's finding of neglected duties.

Vaughan, who was suspended without pay from his $81,474-a-year job effective April 9, had served the past 16 years as chief after joining the force in 1973.

Everson moved to fire Vaughan after learning that dozens of air bottles used by firefighters had not been inspected and their safety certifications had expired. The mayor said Vaughan had other problems on his watch, including that the main fire station was found in violation of fire codes last year because its smoke-detection and alarm system had been inoperable for more than a year.

John C. Camillus, a Columbus lawyer who represents Vaughan, accused the mayor of pressuring Vaughan to retire so that Everson would not have to defend what Camillus called his "inadequate basis" for dismissing the fire chief.

"In fact, the mayor threatened Chief Vaughan that, if he did not retire, Mayor Everson would brutalize him in the media, which is exactly what he has done," Camillus wrote in a statement.

Vaughan "has devoted decades of his life to the protection of the citizens of Chillicothe, and he deserves better than to have the mayor drag his name through the mud," the lawyer added.

Vaughan had a protocol to ensure that air bottles were tested, but the monitoring system broke down among the firefighters beneath him, Camillus said. The chief corrected the problem when it was discovered, he said.

The air bottles might have missed inspection but were properly maintained and did not endanger any firefighters, Camillus said.

Everson wrote Vaughan that "blaming the firefighters for the lapse merely reinforces these charges of incompetence, gross neglect of duty and lack of leadership."

McClatchy-Tribune News Service