Sacramento Area Local News

RED BLUFF, Calif. (CBS13) ― On June 12th last summer, four Sacramento City firefighters were sent to fight the Humboldt fire in Butte County. There was Santino Viramontes, Arthur Leclaire, Nathaniel Green and their supervisor, Captain Mark Ramirez. They drove from Sacramento to the fire line in Butte County.

The next day, the afternoon of June 13th, the three Sacramento firefighters and their captain were pulled off the fire line and sent to Red Bluff, to get some rest at a motel. It turns out they did more than just sleep.

They partied in Red Bluff while they were on the clock.

At 6 p.m. that night two of the firefighters, Arthur Leclaire and Santino Viramontes, bought a couple bottles of vodka and started drinking in the their motel room - while they were still on the clock.

About a half hour later, around 6:30p.m., another firefighter, Nathan Green and fire Captain Mark Ramierez, while on duty and wearing their uniforms, walked into a convenience store and bought beer.

A half hour later, 7p.m. on June 13th, the three firefighters and their captain are in a Red Bluff motel room drinking beer and vodka while on the job. But the party was not over yet.

The next morning, the four men jump in a Sacramento City fire vehicle carrying with them an open bottle of vodka and drive back to the fire line.

The four spent the entire day of June 14th at the Humboldt fire. The next day, June 15th, they were sent to Yuba City.

At 6 p.m. on June 15th, Leclaire and Viramontes were back at it in Yuba City, once again drinking vodka in their motel room while on duty. They went to dinner at 7:30. They bought more beer - wearing their uniforms. Captain Mark Ramirez was with them and let them do it. By 9:30 p.m., Leclaire and Viramontes were back in their motel room drinking alcohol while on the clock.

Details of how the firefighters drank booze and partied while on the road and on duty are spelled out in documents obtained by CBS13. The documents also tell how the party came to a crashing end. On June 16th, the firefighters were told that someone had complained to the department that they had been drinking on the job. The party was over.

"So yeah, I was disappointed," says Chief Ray Jones of the Sacramento City Fire Department.

"Poor judgment, it was absolutely poor judgment," Chief Ray Jones tells CBS13.

The four firefighters have been reprimanded. Santino Viramontes has been demoted for 33 months, Arthur Leclaire was demoted for 22 months and Nathaniel Green has been demoted for six months. And Mark Ramirez has been demoted from fire captain. But Chief Jones says he intends to reinstate Ramirez as a fire captain in the near future.

It's a lesson Jones says he and his department have learned from this situation.

Still, facing drought conditions in another fire season this year, his crew may be called to another fire like the Humboldt fire. And the chief admits that as firefighters, there is a level of trust that the public holds in his men, and after last year's incident, the department will have to work hard to keep that trust.

"I think the public needs to know that people do make mistakes, people also learn from their mistakes, as an organization we make mistakes, we've learned from ours," Chief Jones tells CBS13.

Chief Jones says he feels these firefighters have learned from their mistakes and he is comfortable letting them continue to work for his department.

CBS13 requested to interview all four of those firefighters, but all of them denied our request.

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