Trouble at Flint Hill Fire and Rescue?

Questionable expenses, falsified documents, illegal driving among numerous allegations

The performance of the Flint Hill Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, founded in 1954, is the subject of a scathing report forwarded by the Rappahannock County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association to members of the Rappahannock County Public Safety Committee.

In a letter dated Feb. 19, the association wrote in part that Rappahannock County’s Company 4 “appears to lack standards of behavior and operations and failure to enforce their existing standards.”

It cited as examples: “For the last half of 2019 numerous incidents of dangerous and illegal driving by Co. 4 members while responding POV [in a personally or privately owned vehicle] were reported to the County Emergency Services Coordinator, the Sheriff and Chiefs of other companies. These incidents included forcing a County school vehicle off the road.”

In addition, one Flint Hill member “radioed Fauquier dispatch repeatedly requesting that Co. 4 be dispatched for the Tapps Ford chimney fire. This disrupted Fauquier's handling of the emergency.”

Fauquier wasn’t the only bordering county mentioned in the report.

“Warren County officially asked Rappahannock to stop repeated requests by Co. 4 members to be added for mutual aid,” stated the letter penned by Harold Beebout, President of the Fire and Rescue Association.

Other questions surrounded Flint Hill “members bringing unrequested apparatus such as brush trucks for structure fires,” as well as “Co. 4 management allowing responding apparatus to misrepresent the number of trained firefighters responding to fire calls.”

If all of that wasn’t enough, Beebout said the association held “evidence that at least one Co. 4 officer falsified his Firefighter 1 certification.

“It is alleged that senior officers of Co. 4 were aware as early as August 2019 of the falsified document and took no action,” the president wrote. “In the face of falsified documents, there is no way to make a qualified determination of the level of firefighter on the scene. This lack of credible training documents creates a large risk/liability for other companies and the County since incident command doesn't know who is qualified to be sent into a burning building.”

It’s been a rough road of late for the Flint Hill volunteer company, located on Fodderstack Road. In its 2018 audit, as alluded to by Beebout, Company 4 “was described by auditors as having material weakness in their financial management practices. Work by the Fire Levy Board to assist Co. 4 has revealed other troubling problems in financial accountability.”

One of them includes the fact that Company 4 “has failed to file IRS 990 for calendar 2018.”

The association's bylaws state that it has no power to take action against any member company, which includes enforcing any performance standards. Following its mandate the association said it was therefore reporting its findings of Flint Hill’s performance to the Rappahannock County government for potential action.

In conjunction with the County Emergency Services Coordinator, the association is tasked with monitoring fire companies’ financial practices, including asset accountability, as well as performance. It additionally ensures that company fire and rescue chiefs are following and enforcing standard operating procedures (SOPs) and standard operating guidelines (SOGs).

The association also monitors staffing, training levels and qualifications of all county volunteer departments to ensure they remain capable of providing an appropriate level of services, including as much as possible providing 24/7 response to incidents.

“For the last half of 2019 Company 4's ambulance response rate was 38 percent,” the association found, adding the “rate raises serious questions about Co. 4's compliance.”

Flint Hill’s fire response rate, at the same time, was 77 percent.

One knowledgeable source told the News that in addition to what’s highlighted in the association’s letter, county fire officials have also looked into a Flint Hill funding request “and found $17,000 in questionable expenses. One of them was four new tires for a personal vehicle.”

The association met on Tuesday to discuss all of these findings, in addition to other agenda items. The county’s Fire Levy Board meets Thursday.

Repeated calls to the department seeking comment were not returned.

In conjunction with the County Emergency Services Coordinator, the association is tasked with monitoring fire companies’ financial practices, including asset accountability, as well as performance.