A Buxton businessman, charged with a role in falsifying fire extinguisher tests, pled guilty last week in federal district court in Portland, according to U.S. Attorney Paula D. Silsby.

Dale B. Nason, 49, pled guilty before U.S. District Court Judge George Singal to 18 violations of the Federal Hazardous Materials Transportation Law. The violations date from May, 2001, to July, 2004.

Nason owns Statewide Fire Protection on River Road in Buxton. His company had tested fire extinguishers for SAD 6, a school official said on Tuesday. “We had used them as a vendor until we found out they had problems,” said Helen Vadnais, SAD 6 business manager.

Fire extinguishers in all the SAD 6 schools, including the elementary schools, had been tested by Statewide Fire Protection. Vadnais said the schools switched companies immediately after learning about problems. SAD 6 then hired Simplex in Westbrook to test and re-certify all their extinguishers. She said they have all been re-certified.

According to court documents, Nason has owned Statewide Fire Protection since the late 1980s. His customers include schools, hospitals, fire departments, businesses, and government agencies in southern Maine. Buxton Fire Chief Jeff Grinnell said Statewide Fire Protection hadn’t done any work for the town’s fire department.

According to a court statement, Nason admitted that he falsely told his customers that he conducted required tests on their high pressure carbon dioxide fire extinguishers and that the extinguishers met the specifications. In fact, Nason did not even have the equipment necessary to conduct the tests.

Additionally, Nason admitted placing counterfeit retester identification numbers on the cylinders so his customers and inspectors would mistakenly believe that the extinguishers met the standards.

The maximum penalties that may be imposed upon Nason for each count are five years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000, a term of supervised release for as much as three years to follow any imprisonment, and restitution.

Nason has been released on $2,500 bail while awaiting a sentencing date, a spokesman for the court said this week.

“Testing of fire extinguishers is important to insure that they are in proper working order when they are needed and that the extinguishers themselves are not a hazard. The conduct here not only represented a threat to the safety of these customers but also a violation of their trust,” said Silsby.

“This is a situation where profits were made by a company willing to risk the safety of unsuspecting consumers,” said Theodore L. Doherty, Special Agent in Charge of the Northeastern Region of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General. “This prosecution should deter people in the industry from endangering the safety of those who use compressed gas cylinders.”

A machine answered telephone calls at Statewide Fire Protection this week and last week, but no one returned calls.

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