Black Forest Fire Captain claims retaliation, after being put on leave while Chief is investigated

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - KRDO13 Investigates has learned more details behind why half of the Black Forest Fire District Executive Staff is currently on administrative leave.

It centers around an investigation by the District into the Chief, PJ Langmaid, which began after allegations were brought forward on June 28.

KRDO13 Investigates confirmed with the El Paso County Sheriffs office that an investigation into assaults within the Black Forest Fire District (BFFD) had been conducted, but was since completed at the time of the inquiry. They could not name specific suspects from the investigation, and had not yet filed any charges.

The Board of Directors for BFFD put Chief Langmaid on paid administrative leave on July 1, 2024, and subsequently launched a third-party investigation of their own, with it.

It was on July 18, that two other members of the Executive Staff were put on leave. Deputy Chief Chris Piepenberg, and Captain Michael Torres, both say they received an emailed letter from attorneys, stating they were now switched to paid leave.

Torres explains that the letter clearly states that he is not being investigated in connection to the claims against the Chief, but would still have to adhere to several restrictions, including no longer having access to District facilities.

"It's super vague. It was two paragraphs and it wasn't explaining anything. It was just them saying, you have to return if you have any personal property of the district, keys, buggies, take home cars, your gear, anything that they paid for and they gave to me." said Torres.

Torres explains that on top of fighting fires, he oversees the scheduling, planning, and organization of training for line members. Without Torres, the Deputy Chief Piepenberg, and Chief Langmaid, there is now half of the executive staff remaining within the District.

KRDO13 Investigates previously reported that one board member, Jim Abendschan, was quoted saying in Board Meeting Minutes from July 6 that: "If we leave Chief Piepenburg and Captain Torres in their positions, the culture is untenable, the grapevine is alive and well and not a healthy environment."

Torres says he only learned of Abendschan's comment, as well as many other details surrounding the situation, through the previously mentioned reporting by KRDO13 Investigates, and not through the Board itself.

Torres believes that he and Deputy Chief Piepenberg's placement on leave is retaliation from the Board due to their reporting of the complaints, as he claims there are two board members who are friendly, and have a history with Chief Langmaid during his 15 years with the Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD).

CSFD confirmed to KRDO13 Investigates that PJ Langmaid served as a firefighter from 2005 to 2020. Board Member Kiersten Tarvainen served as a Fire Lieutenant from May of 1993 to December of 2023, while Board Member Jim Abendschan, the same one who made the comments about Piepenberg and Torres in the July 6 Board Meeting, served as a Fire Lieutenant from July 1979 to March 2007.

Captain Torres maintains that he and the Deputy Chief were fulfilling their duties as leaders within the district when reporting the complaints. On June 28, Torres said he alerted his supervisor, Deputy Chief Piepenberg, who then relayed those complaints to the Board of Directors since the matters involved the Chief. Torres says that is how their chain of command works, per protocol.

"So by us doing our job, we get put on paid leave [with] no explanation, because we whistle-blew. We thought that this was so bad, [that] we had to do this. And it is not good." said Torres about the allegations.

Torres explained he had been employed for two of the complaints that were brought to his attention, although he states that he did not witness them. He says "about five" other complaints were brought forward, which had occured while he was not yet employed. Torres says he joined Black Forest Fire District just over a year ago.

Deputy Chief Piepenberg, who has been with the District for five years and was promoted to Deputy Chief in 2022, told KRDO13 Investigates over the phone that he found out about one allegation on June 28, and reported it to the Board.

He says he had never heard of other allegations, prior to the Board getting involved, which he then says spurred more complaints within the District, with some surfacing that happened within the last few months. 

For Torres, going on nearly one month of administrative leave, he wishes he was still able to serve his community, and get transparency about the situation.

"We just want to do our job. That's all I want to do. That's all we want to do and fix our names, because you're tarnishing our names with whatever the chief's going through. And that's not right." says Torres.

He goes on to clarify that he respects the work Chief Langmaid has done since taking over the helm of Black Forest Fire District.

"The chief did great things at the department prior to me coming here, the last five years. He did monumental things. He moved mountains. He created a department that came out of nothing, to where it's at now. So don't get me wrong. It's just that he made a few bad choices recently, and that's on him. You know, he has to he's going to have to handle themselves." said Torres.

As far as operations for the BFFR moving forward, KRDO13 Investigates was previously told that Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD) was providing Battalion Chiefs for assistance with larger and/or more serious calls such as house fires, wildfires, vehicle accidents, hazmat situations and so on. Torres noted that such assistance from an outside agency is only necessary, because he and Deputy Chief Piepenberg are on leave.

Torres was puzzled as to why Falcon or Monument Fire Districts were not providing the assistance, due to their familiarity with the terrain, similar training, and closer proximity to BFFD, compared to CSFD.

The Chiefs for Monument and Falcon both told KRDO13 Investigates they hadn't been approached by BFFD for assistance, but said they are still maintaining their existing mutual aid agreements with one another.

In response to the many claims by Torres, as well as questions from KRDO13 Investigates, the Fire District Board responded with the following statement.

"The Board cannot talk about personnel matters that are under investigation. The Board is awaiting the timely written report from the investigator which is expected soon.  We hope to be able to discuss this topic in executive session at our next regular board meeting."

Nate Dowden, Chairman of Board of Directors

KRDO13 Investigates also attempted to get in touch with a phone number previously attributed to Chief Langmaid, but it was not in service. Crew members also attempted to go to the home address listed for Langmaid, as they had for previous reporting, but there were newly placed 'No Trespassing' signs along both of the driveway entrances.