Records dispute former Alfalfa Fire Chief Chad LaVallee’s claims of a 16-year fire service career
Editor's Note: The Prineville Review is a content partner with KTVZ News through the Oregon Journalism Project
By: Justin Alderman
ALFALFA, Ore. (PRINEVILLE REVIEW) — Former Alfalfa Fire District Chief Chad LaVallee has been traveling the country teaching firefighters while representing himself as having 16 years in the fire service, including experience in both career and volunteer departments and 9 years as chief of a rural combination fire district.
Those representations have appeared in promotional materials for firefighter training conferences where LaVallee has been an instructor and were based on professional background information provided by LaVallee himself to those organizations.
But public records reviewed by the Prineville Review raise significant questions about that claimed history — including when LaVallee’s fire-service career actually began and where he purportedly accumulated years of experience before his documented history at Alfalfa.
Public records from the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) reviewed by the Prineville Review show LaVallee’s documented Oregon firefighter training and status with the Alfalfa Fire District started on June 20th, 2017.
His earliest courses reflected in those records include Vehicle Fire Safety on Oct. 26th, 2017, followed by Flammable Liquids and Gas with Props on Nov. 13th, 2017.
According to DPSST records, LaVallee did not obtain his NFPA Fire Fighter I certification until February 2018. He obtained Operations Level Responder certification that same month and Fire Fighter II certification in August 2018.
The records also do not identify previous service with another Oregon fire agency before Alfalfa.
Yet promotional material for the 2026 Louisiana Instructors & Firefighters Training Conference described LaVallee as a “16-year student of the fire service” who had “served in both career and volunteer houses” and “spent the last 9 years as Chief of a rural combination department.”
A 16-year fire-service history in 2026 would place the beginning of LaVallee’s claimed experience at approximately 2010 — roughly seven years before the first firefighter training reflected in his Oregon DPSST records.
The claim of 9 years as chief presents another discrepancy.
Based on records, LaVallee has been associated with Alfalfa for about nine years as of June, and he did not begin that time as chief. According to a record from DPSST, LaVallee officially became the chief of Alfalfa effective July 1st, 2018, only one year after he joined the Alfalfa Fire District, just over three months after completing his NFPA Fire Instructor I certification.
Alfalfa was still under the leadership of former chief Ron Thompson until LaVallee was seemingly put into the role as chief.
When LaVallee resigned on June 30th, he had served as chief for 8 years.
The earlier advertisement for LaVallee from his purported career was posted in late 2025, at which point LaVallee had only just achieved 7 years as Alfalfa’s chief, not 9.
Changing accounts of earlier fire service
LaVallee has previously claimed experience with one of Oregon’s largest fire agencies — Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue — which, if true, could potentially account for some of the otherwise undocumented years.
But TVF&R says it has no record that LaVallee ever worked or volunteered there.
In late 2024, when we first started showing up at Alfalfa’s meetings, LaVallee told the Prineville Review that he had previously worked with TVF&R beginning in the early 2010s. LaVallee has also repeated variations of that purported history to others over the years, including former Alfalfa volunteers and other local community members who have spoken with the Prineville Review since then.
We subsequently contacted TVF&R and submitted a public records request seeking to verify LaVallee’s claimed history.
The agency’s response was unequivocal.
“We have no record of Chad LaVallee having worked for TVF&R in a paid or volunteer role,” Records Program Coordinator Janetta Tarley-Davis told the Prineville Review.
We later questioned LaVallee directly about the discrepancy.
That conversation occurred outside the Alfalfa fire station during a June 13th meeting, after LaVallee arrived partway through a district meeting which he did not attend. Upon arriving, LaVallee had initially confronted and became verbally combative with a group of women who were speaking about the chief, namely local resident Whitney Griffen.
Griffen recently exposed and shared evidence with the district during a previous budget committee meeting on May 13th, providing photos and alleging LaVallee had frequently used his district-owned vehicle for personal transportation, including taking his children to school in Bend.
Alfalfa’s board has not taken any independent action to investigate the allegations.
When reached previously for comment, Griffen indicated she had not raised the issue with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission (OGEC) and had been waiting to see if Alfalfa’s board would act on it.
After his brief interaction with Griffen and others, LaVallee agreed to speak with the Prineville Review.
When specifically asked about TVF&R’s statement that it had no record of his purported employment or volunteer service, LaVallee gave a substantially different account from what he had previously told the Prineville Review and been claiming to countless others over the years.
LaVallee’s story changed to claiming the reason we didn’t get records is that his involvement with TVF&R had actually been as a volunteer for only several months two decades earlier, during the 1990s.
The Prineville Review returned to TVF&R with that information to determine whether the substantially earlier and shorter period of purported volunteer service could be confirmed.
The answer remained the same.
The district again said it had “no record of Chad LaVallee having worked for TVF&R in a paid or volunteer role.”
Officials later told the Prineville Review during an interview that the agency maintains records for other employees and volunteers dating back to at least 1989 — covering the period during which LaVallee more recently claimed to have volunteered there.
The changing explanations still do not account for the additional years claimed by LaVallee for his fire-service career.
DPSST records reviewed by the Prineville Review likewise show his Oregon firefighter training beginning in 2017 and do not identify prior service with TVF&R or another Oregon fire agency.
Brief tenure at another Oregon fire district
LaVallee did serve as chief at another Oregon fire district, but only briefly.
In early 2022, while still the chief at Alfalfa, LaVallee served for less than three months as interim chief of the Idanha-Detroit Rural Fire Protection District while also serving as Alfalfa’s chief. His short tenure there was marked by controversy, as residents packed a February 2022 board meeting amid opposition to proposed personnel changes LaVallee was pushing, specifically removing the district’s office admin from her job.
As previously reported by the Prineville Review based on the Idanha-Detroit’s meeting records, LaVallee attempted during a meeting to prevent members of the public from providing comment, despite being an interim chief and not a member of the elected board responsible for the meeting. The board ultimately allowed public comment to proceed over his interjection that attempted to stop public input.
LaVallee then asserted during the meeting that attempts by citizens to influence board members were “illegal,” drawing pushback from those in attendance.
Other accounts from his brief tenure included allegations of threats and disparaging comments toward critics and members of the community. In one incident, LaVallee and a district board member were reportedly caught on a hot microphone making disparaging remarks that were profane-laced about members of the public who had been critical of LaVallee’s efforts.
LaVallee’s tenure at Idanha-Detroit ended after only a matter of months.
The interactions, which were captured on a meeting recording and documented in written minutes, showed a striking similarity to LaVallee’s treatment of other critics and whistleblowers in Alfalfa, including during and after public meetings.
LaVallee now teaching firefighters nationally
The questions surrounding LaVallee’s claimed professional history come as he has increasingly presented himself as an instructor to firefighters outside Oregon in recent years.
LaVallee was featured at the Louisiana Instructors & Firefighters Training Conference in Baton Rouge earlier this year. Promotional material prominently identified him as a 16-year student of the fire service and nine-year chief. LaVallee had reportedly provided training for the organization in past years.
The conference advertisement also identified LaVallee as a cadre with Animal House Training, High Desert FOOLS, and owner of an unregistered business called Black Smoke Training.
The Prineville Review challenged the Louisiana Firefighters Foundation earlier this year after the organization initially ignored timelines under Louisiana law in responding to our request for records. Those records were sought after LaVallee had seemingly taken nearly a month of leave, according to statements he also made to the Deschutes County DA during the handling of a public records appeal petition, including claims that he was out of state providing training that was “extended” a week into late March.
We have yet to locate information showing what training LaVallee was providing by late March and where.
The organization eventually provided records related to LaVallee for the 2026 training, records which showed he provided training on March 3rd and 4th of this year.
The records also show a W-9 that LaVallee provided to the organization, which listed only him and not his business, Black Smoke Training.
LaVallee is now being promoted for another training event scheduled for November at the 2026 Ancient City Fire Expo in St. Augustine, Florida.
There, LaVallee and his company are scheduled to present an eight-hour hands-on live-fire course titled, “No Hose, No Problem: Searching Ahead of the Line.”
The course is advertised as an “aggressive live-fire program” teaching search methods, civilian rescue techniques and methods for packaging and moving victims and downed firefighters.
Questions follow departure as Alfalfa chief
The discrepancies emerge amid continuing scrutiny of LaVallee’s tenure at the Alfalfa Fire District.
LaVallee stepped down as chief earlier this summer following months of controversy surrounding the district and his leadership, but has since remained involved with the agency.
During an August board meeting, acting board president Mark Laucks revealed that LaVallee was serving in a new role as the district’s “Training Director.” Despite questions from the Prineville Review about the apparent appointment, including when and how LaVallee was placed into the position, district directors declined to comment.
LaVallee’s continued role comes amid an ongoing Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigation and other questions surrounding the district’s finances, grants, and another investigation by the Oregon Secretary of State for possible election law violations.
The OGEC’s formal investigation into alleged nepotism, conflicts of interest, and misuse of office began in April after a preliminary review. It also stemmed from an entirely separate complaint this reporter filed involving LaVallee, which was recently dismissed and not advanced to a formal investigation last month, according to The Bulletin.
LaVallee and some of his supporters have used the news to inaccurately claim that he is no longer under any investigation by the OGEC.
The Prineville Review recently reported that a fire-equipment vendor was still seeking payment of nearly $120,000 for equipment ordered while LaVallee was chief despite the district having received federal grant funding intended for the purchase. Another portion of the purchase brings the total amount involved to approximately $165,000.
We are still waiting for comment from FEMA on the grant, although the agency has already acknowledged our FOIA request.
The Prineville Review is also awaiting a now-delayed response to a public records request submitted last month seeking the district’s 2026 bank records.
Alfalfa’s attorney, Jered Reid, originally stated the records would be provided no later than Sept. 8th, 2026 — one day before its next public meeting. However, AFD’s attorney informed the Prineville Review late last week that the records would not be produced by that date, without providing a new estimated completion date. Under ORS 192.329(5)(a), when a public body cannot complete its response within the prescribed timeframe, it must provide a written statement that it is still processing the request and the estimated completion date.
The Prineville Review is separately seeking the district’s bank records from earlier years through litigation filed in Deschutes County Circuit Court in July by an attorney representing the publication.
The questions surrounding LaVallee’s claimed professional history now add another question: Where did the additional years come from?
The Alfalfa Fire District’s Board of Directors is scheduled for its next public meeting tonight (Sept. 9th) at 6 p.m. at 25889 Alfalfa Market Rd. It will also be accessible via Zoom by clicking here. You can also view its agenda and meeting information packet.
