An Indiana volunteer fire department could lose the majority of its firefighters at year's end after an agreement couldn't be worked out with a local fire territory board.
The Owen Valley Volunteer Fire Department is set to lose around 20 firefighters, a change that department officials could affect fire service, WRTV-TV reports. The loss of firefighters comes after the department and the Owen Valley Fire Territory board were unable to come to terms on a new contract.
"We run over 300 calls a year and the majority of those are fires or car accidents, so the safety is definitely going to be a big point here because you are not going to have the manpower as you once did," Lt. Joe Frye told WRTV.
According to an attorney for the board, which oversees the fire department, the contract offer was fair, but these changes are now the first toward fully staffing the department with career firefighters. With a full-time chief recently hired, the attorney told WRTV that it hopes two firefighters can be hired in 2020.
