A Greeley fire lieutenant has been placed on leave while an investigation is underway into whether he gave a version of a state hazardous-materials certification test to firefighters preparing to take the exam.
Greeley Fire Chief Duane McDonald said Lt. Roger Moore, who is a test proctor, will remain on paid administrative leave while the case is investigated.
Giving the tests to firefighters could help some pass who wouldn’t have otherwise, possibly putting themselves, citizens and other firefighters at risk, the director of the state fire division said Wednesday.
State officials are trying to determine exactly how many firefighters received copies of the test and whether they were helped by it.
McDonald said that Moore e-mailed a copy of a previous certification test on hazardous materials to seven lieutenants and that some of them might have sent them to an unknown number of firefighters they supervise. The forms did not include test answers, McDonald said.
A Greeley firefighter who is also a proctor told McDonald that the test, which was being distributed as a study guide, appeared to be a current version of the hazardous-materials certification test. McDonald notified the Colorado Division of Fire Safety, which later prepared a special test for 54 Greeley firefighters that did not include questions from the previous test.
“The failure isn’t with the Greeley Fire Department,” McDonald said. “It was with one proctor. I don’t know what his mind-set was. It appears there was nothing malicious.”
He said the firefighters who received the tests likely didn’t know it included questions that could be on their certification test.
“They didn’t know what they had,” McDonald said.
State Fire Safety Division Director Kevin Klein said the department has four current tests with overlapping questions. Proctors must sign a form vowing not to give any of the tests to firefighters. The tests are typically used by smaller Colorado fire departments, while Denver and some other metro-area departments have tests of their own that they administer.
“It’s a big deal,” Klein said. “Our tests have been compromised.”
It’s not known how many of the tests were e-mailed around the state to other firefighters, he said.
He said the state does not have certification requirements for firefighters, but individual departments require them to pass the state tests to become firefighters, keep their jobs or advance.
“That’s how we know that the people doing the job have the skills to save lives,” Klein said.
Someone with an advance copy of the tests might study only those questions and not have a broad knowledge of a certain skill area, he said.
The division suspended testing during the investigation, which will determine how many firefighters received the tests. State testers already had been preparing online testing that would solve security issues.
McDonald said Colorado investigators also are looking into whether other proctors from around the state also gave copies of the tests to firefighters.
Capt. Kent Maxwell of the Chaffee County Fire Protection District said he is worried the incident will hurt the credibility of firefighters around the state. He too is a proctor.
