Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone

Tag Archives: wildland deployment

Oregon Fire District Employee Claims Retaliation

An executive assistant who was fired last year by an Oregon fire district has filed suit claiming she was the victim of retaliation for exercising her 1st Amendment Rights and whistleblowing. Linda Hedlund filed suit last week against the Banks Fire District 13 and Fire Chief Rodney Linz.

Chiefs, Deployments, Reimbursements and Overtime

Today’s burning question: If an Assistant Chief who is classified as an exempt executive employee is deployed on a 2-week wildland or USAR deployment that is fully reimbursable through FEMA or the state, can the fire department only pay the assistant chief his regular weekly salary?

Curt Varone has over 45 years of fire service experience and 35 as a practicing attorney licensed in both Rhode Island and Maine. His background includes 29 years as a career firefighter in Providence (retiring as a Deputy Assistant Chief), as well as volunteer and paid on call experience. He is the author of two books: Legal Considerations for Fire and Emergency Services, (2006, 2nd ed. 2011, 3rd ed. 2014, 4th ed. 2022) and Fire Officer's Legal Handbook (2007), and is a contributing editor for Firehouse Magazine writing the Fire Law column.

Name
First Last
Email*
Address*
State
Job Title
Company
CAPTCHA