Cheating allegations prompt cancellation of fire academy graduation

Las Vegas officials canceled graduation for its latest fire academy class and launched an investigation amid allegations of cheating on a test.

Fourteen recruits were set to graduate from the 20-week fire academy Thursday, but that ceremony and the future employment of the recruits are on hold.

“Due to a possibility of cheating, the city has begun a full investigation into what took place during a written exam given to individuals currently going through the Las Vegas Fire & Rescue academy,” city spokesman David Riggleman said in a statement.

City officials released no details about the allegations, citing the ongoing investigation. Spokeswoman Diana Paul said in a statement that safety would not be jeopardized by the lack of new firefighters.

Scott Johnson, president of the Las Vegas firefighters union, said the investigation was requested by the state fire marshal.

The fire marshal’s office handles testing and certification for most of Nevada’s fire agencies, including the Las Vegas Fire Department, state Fire Marshal Peter Mulvihill said.

Under the voluntary certification program, the fire marshal’s office sends written tests with randomly chosen questions to the agency, which administers the tests and sends them back to the fire marshal’s office for grading.

“In this case, questions came up,” Mulvihill said, referring to the Las Vegas academy.

He would not divulge more details, citing the investigation.

Johnson, president of the International Association of Firefighters, Local 1285, said he had never heard of cheating at the fire academy in his 16 years with the agency.

The Baltimore Fire Department’s academy was hit by a cheating scandal in 2011.

In that case investigators found that recruits had received confidential testing materials, but none of them intentionally cheated.

The academy’s top official was reassigned in the wake of the allegations, and the department ended its training program for emergency medical services.

Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281.