Man charged with impersonating firefighter

GAINESVILLE - It's a first for Hall County's fire chief: a man is charged with impersonating a firefighter.

David Kimbrell says David Alan Spain, 25, showed up at the Sardis fire station recently saying he was a newly-hired firefighter and had been assigned to the station.

The shift commander at the station was suspicious, began to question Spain, asking him for his paperwork. Kimbrell says Spain told the officer it was in his car and the officer told him to go get it and while he was doing that, he would call downtown and verify who he was and his story. That's when, according to Kimbrell, Spain got in his car and left.

Personnel at the fire station remembered when Spain said he lived and the Hall County Sheriff's Office was called to investigate. Kimbrell said deputies went to Spain's home where he greeted them wearing "some sort of fire department jacket, not one of ours," while still insisting that he was a newly-hired firefighter.

Kimbrell says Spain eventually confessed that he had made the story up and was arrested and charged with impersonating a public officer.

Kimbrell said it was a first for him but that he has heard through the state fire chiefs' association of it happening in other parts of the state.