Weymouth Firefighter’s Firing Upheld

The state upheld the firing of a Weymouth firefighter who was caught smoking on the job in January 2012.

Last week, the state Civil Service Commission determined that the town of Weymouth had cause to fire Kenneth Morehouse in January 2012 after he was caught violating a state law that bans police and firefighters from smoking on or off the job, the Boston Herald reported. 

The smoking ban has been in place since 1988 but Morehouse argued he was exempt from the ban because he began working as a firefighter in Boxborough in 1986, before the law went into effect.

The Civil Service Commission determined the smoking ban applied to Morehouse because he started working in Weymouth in 2003, after the rule had already been put into place.