JENNIFER LESLIE
11Alive
Reprinted with Permission

Decatur, GA - Four DeKalb County firefighters have been demoted for drinking during the January ice storm, when metro Atlanta was under a state of emergency.


An internal report released Tuesday shows a group of firefighters went out drinking on January 11, two nights into the snow and ice storm that paralyzed the county.

The report shows three firefighters left a bar and brought a 12-pack of beer to Fire Station 24 in Stone Mountain.

"They're all sincerely apologetic to the department, the county, the citizens," said Interim Fire Chief Eddie O'Brien. "They let me down and everybody down."

According to an internal investigation, Captain Marcus Reed admitted he drank too much.

"The initial events of meeting for dinner and consumer alcohol does not violate county policies," the report states. "Captain Reed's conduct became unbecoming and he began to violate policy when he became intoxicated to a point of making bad decisions, and not remembering specific events brings discredit upon his position."

The report shows fire apparatus operator William Corbett admitted that he had an open container inside the station, along with firefighter Joshua Crawford.

They were all off-duty at the time and said they went to the station to sleep it off.

"If a citizen had come into Station 24, they would not have differentiated between on-duty or off-duty status of these employees, and only would have associated that consuming alcohol on premises was unacceptable," the report states.

The report indicates there is no evidence they were intoxicated when they woke up and started their shifts the next morning, 8 hours later.

"While the firefighters did the right thing by reporting to work early, they did show a severe lack of judgement in going out and having alcoholic beverages, which compromised their ability to act in case they were needed during an emergency," said William Miller, DeKalb Director of Public Safety.

Asst. Chief Joseph Tinsley has also been demoted, after admitting he had a drink at the bar that night with the other disciplined firefighters.

Tinsley was actually exonerated in the internal investigation but punished by his superiors nonetheless.

The report shows there's no proof anyone went on a fire call while intoxicated.

The report shows two other employees, Captain Stevy Duke and Captain Allan Garcia, neglected their duties by failing to notify their chain-of-command and "act in a prompt manner to remedy policy violations."