Several D.C. firefighters have been reassigned as internal affairs investigators look into allegations of drunken misconduct at a Columbia Heights firehouse, fire officials said.
A complaint was filed last month and the department’s internal affairs unit is still looking into the accusations, D.C. fire spokesman Pete Piringer said Thursday.
A photo has surfaced showing the backside of a naked man standing before a industrial oven of what appears to be the kitchen at a firehouse in Columbia Heights.
“We don’t tolerate that kind of behavior,” said Piringer. “It’s unacceptable behavior on or off duty.”
Piringer said he could not provide any more details about the allegations because it’s an ongoing investigation.
According to sources, the incident occurred after a July 7 retirement dinner for an outgoing deputy fire chief at the fire station in the 3400 block of 14th Street NW, known among firefighters as the “House of Flame.” The celebration continued and some of the partygoers went on to neighborhood bars.
Some of the people who had been drinking at the bars returned to the firehouse at least one of them stripped nude, sources said.
Some of the firefighters have been reassigned, but Piringer said he did not know whether they were moved because of the investigation.
“Disciplinary action can be expected” if the allegations turn out to be true, Piringer said.
Later in a statement released to the rest of the media, Piringer said that the investigation has not substantiated allegations that “high ranking fire chiefs were in attendance and they may have withheld information about the event to prevent embarrassment.”
This is not the first time D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin has had to deal with embarrassing allegations of misconduct. In 2007, his department investigated claims of involving exchanges of money for sex among D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services personnel. Among the allegations was that emergency medical technicians and paramedics were asked to perform sexual favors in order to get overtime approved by supervisors. That investigation was started after a sergeant was charged with indecent exposure after allegedly exposing himself to a female colleague
No one was ever charged in the sex-for-overtime probe.
