Capt. Bruce Douglas, a 19-year veteran of the Gwinnett County fire department, resigned Friday. He was a supervisor in the county fire marshal's office.
Gwinnett County Commissioner Bert Nasuti said the missed inspections were ``inexcusable.''
``Public safety is one of the areas you don't get second chances,'' Nasuti said. ``We're going to send a message from above that people need to do their jobs or there's going to be a price to pay.''
On Wednesday, fire marshal Tim Eckenwiler resigned and senior inspector Bruce Caldwell retired. Fire Chief Jack McElfish was forced to resign last week, in part, because of the missed school checks, officials said.
David Wiley, assistant fire chief over the department's safety and education division, has been assigned to the marshal's office to get it back in order, acting Fire Chief Steve Rolader said.
Rolader also said further investigation Friday revealed there may not be as many missed inspections as initially thought, but the investigation is not complete.
On Thursday, Rolader said some of the schools hadn't been inspected during the past year or two, while a dozen hadn't been inspected since 2000.
County officials discovered the missed inspections after having trouble filling an open records request by a local television station.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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