By FireRescue1 Staff
WELDON, Iowa — Over 1,700 firefighters may have to retake their certification exams after an investigation revealed the certifications were improperly issued.
Officials arrested the former state coordinator of the certification program, John McPhee, and charged him with misconduct in office, a Class D felony, and tampering with records.
An investigation into the Iowa Fire Services Training Bureau found that 1,706 firefighters who failed their certification written tests between 2012 and 2016 were improperly issued more than 2,000 certificates, reported WHOTV.
Although the certifications are not required by state, they are required by some local fire departments and agencies.
In April, McPhee and Randal Novak, former chief for the state Fire Training Services Bureau, were placed on paid administrative leave after concerns were brought to the State Fire Marshall regarding the certification testing. Novak retired on June 2.
“There was insufficient information to press charges against anyone else,” Kyle Gorsh, State Fire Marshal special agent in charge told the Des Moines Register. “The only one they had evidence to press charges on was John McPhee.”
The investigation revealed that 2,278 of the 9,231 certifications issued during those four years were done so improperly.
“It’s not just the Weldon Fire Department, it’s departments throughout the state of Iowa that this is gonna affect,” Weldon training Officer Randy Sharp told WHOTV. “They were told that they passed the class, they got their patches, their certifications and come to find out a year later, the fire service says that somebody was supposed to have graded tests, didn’t grade the test, and now we’ve got our guys that didn’t pass.”
Refresher training and retesting will be conducted between February and June. Iowa now uses a third-party testing company to administer and grade its firefighting certification tests, according to the Register.