In Washington Township, Ohio, a lack of coverage has stopped firefighters from being able to work.
One of the firefighters from the Washington Township Fire Department recently confessed to embezzlement, and this issue has now led to the unfortunate insurance news that a lack of coverage had caused a temporary shut down until a policy could be reopened.
According to the fire department’s attorney, Susan McDonald, this insurance news begins with the fact that for several months, there have not been premiums paid for the fire trucks, nor have the payments been made for workers’ compensation. This was discovered at the end of last month when the station was notified by a bank that it had reached a point in which it was past due on its loan payment. The loan was one that was taken out, said McDonald, through forged documents and was not one of which the department was aware.
The insurance news then followed with a firefighter who turned himself in for this case of embezzlement.
When the fireman turned himself in at the Muskingum County Jail for having embezzled the funds, it became clear that the money that the staff members at the fire department had thought was going toward the premiums payments had actually been taken by the firefighter, said McDonald.
The alleged embezzler could find himself facing a number of felonies linked with taking those funds, but the fire department, itself, will not be required to deal with any future penalties, said the attorney. She stated that “It was not knowingly, and we thank the good Lord that there were not claims during that time.”
That said, the insurance news continued because the lack of coverage held by the fire department meant that Community Ambulance was forced to terminate the lease that it had with the Washington Township Fire Department, explained Tom Edminson, the Director of Operations. That said, as the ambulances have already been strategically located in various places throughout the day, there shouldn’t be any impact on response times.