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Nov. 23--HUMMELS WHARF -- Tony Wells has been cited by police, and suspended from the Hummels Wharf Fire Department for starting a brawl at the fire hall, and now he's not certain he will return to firefighting duty with the company he once served as president.
"I'm not sure if I'll go back," Wells said.
He and president Bruce Bickel were given 10-day suspensions by fire company officials last week for their parts in a brawl, according to Deputy Chief John "Jack" Grove.
Though the men had been drinking that night, Grove said the suspensions were for fighting, not for drinking, and both men are still allowed to visit the fire company's bar. They are not allowed, however, to enter the fire department portion of the building.
"It is very, very seldom" these types of suspensions are handed down by the department, Grove said.
The department's maximum suspension is 10 days, but extensions can be made as needed.
History of tensions
Police say Wells, 37, of Hummels Wharf, became angry during a meeting in which he lost a bid for retention as assistant chief and president for the department, and that he became aggressive and was swearing at various members.
As current company president, Bickel, 47, of Shamokin Dam, was heading back to his office, Wells accosted him and tackled him into a stack of chairs, police said.
Wells said tension between him and Bickel had been building for some time.
"I know I did something wrong by pushing him," he said.
Wells said that after he shoved Bickel, Bickel hit him in the head with the ballot box.
Bickel, who has served the fire company for 28 years, said he was walking up steps, with a ballot box in one arm and a voting box in the other when Wells tackled him, and they both fell into a stack of chairs. He dropped everything, he said, in an attempt to protect himself.
He accepts the suspension that was handed to him, saying about fire company officials, "I can take it, if that's what they feel they need to do."
He said he has no ill feelings toward Wells, and only wants the situation to be healed.
"I want things to get back to the way they were," he said. "We don't need this."
Wells was the only one charged by police in the scuffle that night.
Video surveillance at the firehouse, he contends, will prove that Bickel assaulted him.
Meanwhile, Wells contends that the fight had nothing to do with the election, though he did not explain what the brawl was about. He added that he doesn't believe that fights in fire halls are uncommon.
Intoxication not tolerated
The department has no written policy explicitly banning firefighters from responding to emergency calls after they have been drinking. However, all firefighters in the department are aware that the fire chiefs would not tolerate it if a firefighter responded to a call while intoxicated.
"We have firefighters who go into the bar for drinks and they turn their pagers off," Grove said.
There was no indication that either Wells or Bickel made any effort to respond to any of the emergency calls that came in around the time of their fight, he said.
"I wouldn't get on the fire truck if I was drinking," Wells said.
Bickel said he was running the meeting that night, and had no intentions of going on fire calls, either.
There is no public safety concern, Wells assures: "Ninety-eight percent of our firemen don't even drink beer."
Wells has served with the Hummels Wharf Fire Department for about 16 years. He ran the bar for seven years, was president for seven years, and served as assistant chief for two years.
John Finnerty contributed to this report.
