Liberty County fire marshal and his 2 assistant fire marshals fired following arrests
LIBERTY COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Liberty County Fire Marshal Bill Hergemueller and his two assistant fire marshals, Erskine "Nat" Holcomb and Jesse McGraw, are all no longer employed by Liberty County.
The decision was made during a special commissioners' court meeting Friday afternoon.
A Texas Rangers' investigation found that though they have been inspecting local schools and daycares and even fires that became part of criminal investigations, none of them had the certifications they needed to do that.
To add to it, Hergemueller and Holcomb are accused of stealing from crash scenes they responded to.
"We will be doing some serious vetting on the next go-round," Judge Jay Knight said after Friday's meeting.
The commissioners' court said they would adopt a more stringent review process for people they appoint, though they did not yet have specifics on their new protocol.
According to past commissioners' court agendas, 2016 is when Judge Knight and the commissioners in place then appointed Hergemueller to be the fire marshal. They knew then he didn't have the proper certifications, but he was hired under the condition that he would get them within a year.
It seems though, no one ever followed up on that.
When ABC13 pressed Knight on whether the commissioners' court hired Hergemueller, they did not ensure he got the proper certifications, and the judge wouldn't say.
"This is off the record if you want to talk about that," Knight said.
Until a new fire marshal is appointed, the judge says surrounding counties have agreed to help them with fire investigations.
Here in Liberty County, there are many people that know each other, especially these officials. The judge says he didn't see these charges coming.
"Like a calf looking at a new gate. 'Is that surprising?' Pretty surprised," Knight said.
There's no timeline yet for when a new fire marshal will be appointed.
Hergemueller was also the coordinator for the Liberty County Office of Emergency Management.
The judge says this will now go back to being two separate positions, with TDEM helping until they appoint someone else in the OEM role.
The Liberty County Commissioners Court released this statement at the special meeting:
"The Liberty County Commissioners Court acknowledges that Mr. Hergemueller was unqualified to serve as the Fire Marshal for Liberty County. The events that have unfolded this week present an opportunity to develop and adopt a more stringent review process for all court-appointed officials. Moving forward, this court will do what is necessary to ensure that every person appointed to a position in Liberty County is qualified under the law."
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