By Xander Landen
The Keene Sentinel
MARLOW, N.H. — Selectmen terminated the town’s fire chief Monday, alleging he poorly managed the fire department’s budget, neglected duties and violated labor laws.
The board outlined its decision to fire Thomas Foote in a letter it wrote to him Monday.
In an interview with The Sentinel, Foote said that all the allegations in the letter were false, and that most of them are “hatched-up things; garbage.”
Foote, 73, said he has worked for the volunteer fire department for 51 years, and spent at least 15 of those as chief. He is also the town’s fire warden.
Marlow Selectmen Chairman Robert Allen declined to comment on the selectmen’s allegations against Foote in the letter or the reasons for his termination.
“To protect Tom Foote’s legal rights we’re not going to give any personal information,” Allen said.
When asked if Foote had been replaced as Marlow’s fire chief, Allen said it’s up to the fire department make a new appointment.
Foote said no one has volunteered to take over as chief and that some members of the department, including its captain, Art Andersen, have resigned since his termination. He also said he is contemplating legal action.
The letter from selectmen, obtained by The Sentinel, alleges Foote violated New Hampshire and federal labor laws by allowing Junior Firefighters and Youth Explorers under the age of 18 to participate in “prohibited (hazardous)” firefighting activities that put them at risk.
Foote said the Marlow Fire Department never had a Junior Firefighters program, and the department operated its Youth Explorer Program, which is organized in part through the Boy Scouts of America, within legal limits.
State law allows people over the age of 16 to take part in a fire department’s operations to put out wildland or brush fires, he said.
The young people who participated in firefighting duties were old enough to do so, he said. He stressed that those under age 16 did not participate in any activities with the department that would have been prohibited under law.
In the letter, selectmen also say Foote did not schedule “needed” 2016-17 fire code inspections at the John D. Perkins Academy in Marlow, the town’s elementary school.
N.H. School Administrative Unit 29 Superintendent Robert Malay said he hadn’t received a fire code inspection report from the Marlow Fire Department since he started his job in July 2015.
He said he usually receives inspection reports for the schools in Unit 29 from the towns’ fire departments. Unit 29 covers Chesterfield, Harrisville, Keene, Marlborough, Marlow, Nelson and Westmoreland.
Foote said he hasn’t submitted a fire code inspection report to the superintendent or the Office of the State Marshal in three years because he’s been waiting for the school and its principal, Walter Huston, to fix fire code violations before he did so.
He said he didn’t want to submit a report that could get the principal “in trouble.”
Now he says he should have submitted the report citing these violations.
“I realize now that was a mistake; I should have sent it in with all the discrepancies listed,” he said.
There were objects that needed to be removed from hallways, rooms and near windows to comply with fire code, according to Foote.
Huston declined to comment for this story.
This school year, Foote said he was meeting with Huston on a regular basis to fix these issues.
Malay noted what he perceived as a lack of communication from Foote in his relationship with Huston.
At monthly school board meetings, Huston would check in about whether he had heard from the chief on issues including the renewal of the school’s occupancy permit, which was due in December, according to Malay.
Malay said Huston reported rarely hearing back from Foote.
“There was nothing that the principal could report because he didn’t have any information coming back in,” Malay said.
Malay said he did eventually hear of progress about the permit. Foote said he obtained a temporary occupancy permit for the school last week, so its all-purpose room could be used on Election Day.
On another matter, the board accused Foote of failing to conduct flow tests on fire hydrants used to access water during fires, and said that since 2013 he has not filed needed annual reports with the board or responded to its inquiries.
In response, the board said it was “forced” to buy a $5,800 Turbodraft suction hose to ensure the town would have enough of a water supply in the event of a fire.
Foote said the Marlow Fire Department did not have the correct equipment to conduct the tests, and required a device called a pitot gauge to measure fire hydrant flow. He said the department requested that town officials purchase a pitot gauge, but the request was denied.
Despite his termination, Foote can still volunteer as a firefighter with the department and serve as the Marlow’s fire warden, according to Marlow’s executive administrator, Jacqui Fay.
Foote says he plans on doing so.
“I’ve been a firefighter for 50-plus years. I’m not quitting now.”
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