SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Wear and tear on firefighter gear can be dangerous.
"If that fails, it'll be fatal," said Princeton Fire and Rescue Department assistant chief Josh Vaccari while showing a mask damaged in a training exercise. "It's the only thing that protects a firefighter from 600 degrees of fire and hot gases."
From compromised gear to trucks with broken safety features that they claim have not been repaired, firefighters in Princeton are fed up with it.
"When the chief was told we had to make those repairs, he said it was not in the budget to make those repairs," Vaccari said.
Those issues, combined with what they claim is a lack of communication and billing issues with the townships they serve, have Vaccari and many others publicly criticizing their chief.
"It's very awkward," he said.
The Princeton Fire Department is a paid-on-call volunteer department made up of 36 firefighters. Of that group, 33 recently presented a signed vote of no confidence in their Chief Ron Lawrence to the city council.
Now, the firefighters have given city leaders an ultimatum. If they don't get the response they want from the city by Feb. 8 -- termination of the fire chief -- Vaccari claims two-thirds of the department say they'll quit.
"The firefighters don't trust the chief. They don't feel safe working for him anymore. And that's why we're putting our foot down," Vaccari said. "If all those repairs are made and we had a different chief, we would stay."
Blue Hill Township ended its contract with Princeton Fire last summer, and Vaccari claims two others are threatening to leave as well.
Viccari said they don't want to quit.
"We're a family. It's like leaving a family," he said.
But he says the problems have reached a critical point.
"If we can't do our jobs effectively, the citizens are at risk."
City response
Princeton City Administrator Michele McPherson issued a long, detailed statement in response to the threat of quitting and accusations made -- stating that accusations made about Chief Lawrence do not meet the legal standard appropriate for termination of employment.
"The City of Princeton is still in the process of attempting to determine how many of the members actually agree with this threat," McPherson wrote.
The city has hired an outside firm to conduct a workplace assessment including detailed, confidential interviews with each member of Princeton Fire and Rescue. That process has not been completed.
"The current dynamics within the PFRD go well beyond dissatisfaction with the Fire Chief, and the workplace assessment is specifically designed to address this situation in a comprehensive fashion. However, rather than allow the workplace assessment process to proceed, certain members of the PFRD leadership decided to threaten the City with a walk-out unless their unilateral demand to terminate the Fire Chief is met, regardless of propriety or legality," McPherson wrote. "The members of the PFRD are heroes; each and every one. This includes Chief Lawrence, who has spent 30 years serving and protecting the residents of the City of Princeton."
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