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November 29, 2009

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Fake fire inspectors hitting businesses

Tuesday, Sept. 10, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

If a person claiming to be a fire inspector stops into your business and requests payment for servicing your fire extinguishers, be wary.

The Las Vegas Fire Department is warning local businesses that three people have been caught attempting to offer the fraudulent service.

The offenders, whose names were not been released, have scammed the public by implying that the business owner would be instantly fined if an extinguisher is not immediately serviced, said fire department spokesman Tim Szymanski.

Once the business representative agreed to have the extinguisher serviced, Szymanski said the individual would take it to a service vehicle, wipe it clean, affix a new outside tag on it and put it back without actually performing any maintenance work.

"Fire inspectors never deal with money," Syzmanski said. "Second, city or state fire inspectors do not perform maintenance work."

State law requires that extinguishers be disassembled, inspected and an internal tag installed to prove the equipment has been worked on. Las Vegas fire inspectors could find no internal tags on the equipment allegedly repaired in the scam.

Fire inspectors say more citations may be issued.

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