By Bob Fowler
The Knoxville News-Sentinel
OLIVER SPRINGS, Tenn. — The resignations of seven Oliver Springs firefighters, submitted Monday in an uproar over a new city policy, were taken off the table Tuesday in a special meeting with the mayor and city manager.
And after a later, closeddoor session between firefighters and the city officials, the policy requiring the town’s newer fire engine to remain inside the city limits at all times also was rescinded.
“All’s well on the home front,” City Manager David Bolling said late Tuesday. “We hammered out some communications issues that can be better, and we’re going to work on a policy that everybody has input on.
“We’re going to start again with a clean slate,” Bolling said.
Firefighters quit after one department member was suspended Monday for driving the newer fire engine to a blaze outside the city limits in violation of the new policy.
Mayor Chris Hepler last week issued that guideline after learning the department’s older fire engine had lost its National Fire Department Association certification.
Hours after the 30-day suspension was issued, Hepler and Bolling received emailed resignations from more than one-third of the department, including those of the assistant fire chief and a captain.
Firefighters during Tuesday’s open meeting said there are times when both fire trucks are needed, both for their safety and to effectively combat blazes.
“Us working with one arm tied behind our back is not acceptable from any standpoint,” said Jordan Alcorn, the department captain.
“They (firefighters) needed the resources there in case something went wrong,” Assistant Chief Justin Bailey said of Monday’s incident. “We made sure the town was covered by another agency.”
Hepler and Bolling said that the mass resignations took them by surprise, that they hadn’t been notified that the town’s older fire engine had lost certification, and that no firefighters had earlier expressed any concern about the new policy.
“The whole thing upsets me,” Hepler said earlier Tuesday. “No one in the department came to me.”
“We’re going to protect our citizens first,” Bolling stated in one of several emailed communications he exchanged Monday with firefighters.
There are now 19 members of the town’s fire department. Longtime volunteer Tom Scott said department members are the most highly trained “in 37 years.”
Firefighters work on a voluntary basis, but are paid $10.92 an hour when they go out on fire calls.
Copyright 2011 Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
All Rights Reserved