Firemen Didn't Use Station For Porn Surfing: Chief

County firefighters who were thought to be surfing porn sites on stationhouse computers got cleared by their chief, after they proved they'd been visiting a car supply and chat room Website a county audit program erroneously reported as an adult Website.

"I wish to extend my personal apology to each of you and your families for any aggravation and/or embarrassment that you may have experienced as a result of being mistakenly included as a possible violator, within the Computer Usage Audit," said a letter of apology from Fire Chief Mike Nickerson obtained by the Tampa Tribune.

The mistaken audit provoked an investigation into the firefighters' Internet habits on the job. It turned out the car supply site was linked to an unspecified adult site, which department technology director Garry Allen told the Tribune might have been due to a kind of lease deal between the car supply business and the adult site.

But the computer program, which reported Website visits to auditors, apparently reported only the parent Website and not the car supply Web site, the newspaper said. The original audit accusations angered firefighters' union president Tony Noble, who said the audit was too hasty and helped besmirch his men's reputations.

"We were charged with pornography," he told the Tribune. "We go into people's homes. The audit led people to believe this about us." And he questioned why his union had to defend themselves for something they hadn't done, though it wasn't stated whether his union would take any formal action.