Fire station shut during investigation
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Fire Department Closes
Scituate closes a fire department while it investigates allegations of misusing town property.
Photo courtesy of Mario Hilario
SCITUATE, R.I.—The garage bays at the Chopmist Hill Fire Department sit empty, and police tape cordons off the building.
Town officials said Tuesday that it will stay that way while they investigate alleged misuse of town property.
Pictures purportedly show firefighters filling up a Chopmist truck with water from neighboring Johnston without permission.
“Obviously, that kind of allegation is troubling. These are town assets, municipal assets, though they are in the control of a non-municipal volunteer organization,“ said David D’Agostino, the Scituate town solicitor.
Chopmist Hill Fire Chief Dennis Gaffney said they’ve had a long-standing agreement with Johnston that pre-dates current officials in both towns.
“There was no written policy. It was an agreement that we could use the hydrants for fires or training or whatever, and it’s been past practice,“ Gaffney said.
Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena said there was no written or verbal agreement with his administration and that he could find no evidence of any agreement with previous mayors.
Polisena said he’s billing Scituate for the estimated water use and applauded the closing of the fire station.
Officials in Scituate said residents should not be concerned about the closing of Chopmist Hill and that the town’s three other fire stations and mutual aid can cover its ground.
“Public safety has not been in jeopardy or compromised in any fashion, nor will it be in the future,“ said Col. David Randall of the Scituate Police Department.
“For a truck to come from one end of town to this end of town, you’re talking 15 minutes. I don’t think that’s safe,“ Gaffney said.
Gaffney said he believes the shutdown was the result of rescue personnel in the station, who are paid, deciding to unionize.
“They’re retaliating against Chopmist Hill,“ Gaffney said.
Scituate Town Council President Robert Budway called that “nonsense, absolutely nonsense.“
No criminal charges have been filed in the case.
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Reader Reactions
If it is not about the water but some other issue, just be honest and say what the issue is. If the issue will not stand on its own merits then what does that tell you.
I think this has been a long time coming, and Yes this is related to more than just water. The Chopmist Hill FD has been known as a renegade fire department with their chief being a puppet. the chief is not running the department, only a few certain members are. I think the Town Council had no other choice.
This is totally ridiculous. Nothing else to do in johnston eh? So what about when the fire hydrants are opened up on a hot summer day so inner city kids can cool off, what now.. the kids should do jail time. paleeze! 
the hydrant water is not metered.
Does the mayor know that the water department, usually once a year, will go around and open each hydrant full blast for several minutes just to flush the pipes out? This uses probably hundreds of thousands of gallons of water all together. A fire truck holds between 500-1000 gallons.
The point is the water itself is NEARLY free, like I said before its the pipping and maintenance and water dept that needs the money which is why residents get charged for “water”.
For instance a bottle of water costs $1.50, but the water itself is worth maybe 1 cent?
is this even real! Im sure if those firefighters knew how much water cost they would not be wasting it on fires.
oh did the Scituate town council forget to tell you that they wont even recognize those union members as town employees and are fighting with the irs over whether or not they are town or independent contractors.Hmmmmmm, wonder how you meter hydrant water, or does the city of providence water supply not charge for that service?
Chopmist Hill Dream Team!
The fire station should not be shut down. The Chopmist Hill Fire Dept. has an excellant record…they haven’t lost a foundation yet.
Pahleeze!! Why shut down the whole fire station? Why not suspend the offenders pending the investagation process. Would they shut down the whole Police Department if they were investigating 1 officer’s
misconduct? “Polisena said he’s billing Scituate for the estimated water use and applauded the closing of the fire station” That’s a real nice comment from a Mayor. To “applaude” the closing of a fire station? Typical politics as usual. And shame on the Scituate town clowns, opps I mean Council, for closing the fire station!!
the whole thing is foolish. maybe the chief was not too far off the mark,on the union thing.open the station back up,pit the rescue in a town building, and find just who is the s—- steerer.
It doesn’t boil down to the water. Johnston’s water isn’t the LEAST of the problems that Chopmist Hill Fire Department has.
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