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Hagerstown Fire Department proposes handing fire and explosive investigations to state fire marshal; MOU amendment to return for vote
Summary
Hagerstown fire officials proposed Sept. 16 to amend the city’s MOU with the Office of the State Fire Marshal so the state assumes fire and explosive investigations while the local fire marshal retains inspections and plan review.
The Hagerstown Fire Department recommended during the Sept. 16 work session that the city amend its memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Office of the State Fire Marshal to transfer responsibility for fire and explosive investigations to the state while retaining the department’s local responsibilities for plan review, life-safety inspections and community risk reduction.
Fire Department presenter Keith DeBaco explained the change is driven by staffing and training realities. Investigators must attend a law-enforcement academy — a six-to-seven month program — and the department has experienced attrition and difficulty recruiting personnel willing to undergo that training. DeBaco said the investigation workload is small relative to inspection and plan-review obligations and that transferring investigative responsibility to the state will allow local staff to focus on inspections, plans review and community outreach.
“We would like to turn over, all fire investigations and explosive investigations to the office of state fire marshal. In the MOU, that would be the only change,” DeBaco said, adding the Hagerstown Fire Department would retain all other core functions including daily inspections and plans review.
DeBaco said the department would keep existing law-enforcement credentials for its current fire marshal staff; he also noted operational concerns such as training for an explosives-detection canine that require law-enforcement certification. The MOU draft will be returned to the council for formal approval; staff said the mayor and the city administrator would be signatories on the amended MOU.
What’s next: Staff will prepare an amended MOU for council consideration at a future regular session and publish the draft in the preliminary agenda as the transcript records. The amendment is intended to be narrowly targeted to investigative responsibilities and to preserve local inspection and plan-review capacity.
