Longview Paramedics Return to Work

By Robyn Claridy in The Longview News-Journal
One Longview firefighter returned to work Thursday, and another will return today, after being placed on a mandatory leave of absence for not renewing their paramedic licenses. Longview Fire Marshal Johnny Zackary said two firefighters were placed on leave without pay in late December after an employee noticed one of the firefighter’s certifications had expired.

Zackary said once it was confirmed the the employee had an expired certification, the others were checked to see if any other firefighters didn’t have up-to-date certifications. That’s when they discovered the second firefighter who also had an expired emergency medical technician/paramedic license. “As soon as we were aware of it, we took immediate action.”

He said one of the firefighters was placed on leave Dec. 27, and the other was placed on leave the following day. “However, they have both been able to solve the issue. One of the them returned to work (Thursday) and the other will return to work (today),” Zackary said.

One of the employees’ certifications had been expired for about five months, and the other had been expired for about six months. “They are stellar employees, we’re not talking about bad employees here. They’re great paramedics who just missed an important ingredient. It’s just like when you forget to renew your driver’s license,” Zackary said.

Zackary would not provide which station the firefighters worked for, or their names because “it wouldn’t be to the benefit of the public.”

Since the situation arose, Zackary said the fire department is implementing a better system to ensure nothing like this happens again. “It is the responsibility of the license holder to maintain the certification, but we provide training to help the employee. Through this, we have realized that we need to check differently, and more often,” Zackary said. “But it’s our responsibility to make sure our employees are certified.

The department was checking licenses annually, which is what Zackary said caused the gap in the system. “Sometimes we would have just checked and all of them were fine, but then one of there licenses could expire a few months after we checked,” he said.

Department of Health Services spokesman Chris Van Deusen said their department received a complaint about the situation. “As with any complaint, we are investigating to see whether any of our rules were broken. It’s still an open investigation at this time,” he said. Zackary said their department contacted health services as soon as they were aware of the situation.