A firefighter and a downtown bar owner decided not to pursue criminal charges against each other after an early-morning fight.
Police were called to the bar, O’Toole’s on Orange Street, at 2:07 a.m.
They learned that the firefighter, who was off duty and apparently wearing an NHFD T‑shirt and had been drinking with colleagues, got into a fight with an owner of O’Toole’s.
Both men spoke with police and offered starkly different accounts of who started the fight, according to police spokesman Officer David Hartman. Neither man went to the hospital.
According to one version, the fight occurred inside the bar during a dispute at closing time. According to another version, it occurred the owner followed the firefighter two blocks down the street.
O’Toole’s owner contacted police to report an assault. (Neither the owner nor the firefighter could be reached for comment for this story.)
Investigators “have not been able to view” security video from the bar, according to Hartman. The police had asked to see it; the bar did not have any legal obligation to provide it. Both parties subsequently told police they don’t want to pursue criminal charges against the other, so police do not plan to make any arrests, according to Hartman.
Fire Chief Allyn Wright told the Independent Friday that he’s reviewing the incident.
The O'Toole's guys are steady hands who have been in the business a long, long time. I'd definitely take their version of events over a drunken customer.