HOMER, Ga. -- Banks County lost about 75 percent of its volunteer firefighters Tuesday night when 33 of them resigned at a commission meeting.
Former deputy chief John Creasy, a spokesman for the group for volunteered in Banks County for 10 years, said the group tried for months to resolve what they considered to be "mis-management issues" with the department.
Creasy said those issues stemmed from the way the department is being run by its current chief, Gary Pollard, who has held the position for five months.
He said there are no plans to continue discussions with the commission or the chief.
"It's just our opinion ... he didn't feel our services were that necessary," Creasy said. "From our end we certainly hope nothing serious happens within the county because we definitely disagree with that opinion."
Creasy said the department is currently under investigation by the Georgia Firefighters Standards and Training Council for some "illegal" and "very dangerous" training activities.
Another issue was the demotion of volunteer officers.
"We felt that people who had experience and training were being taken out of the leadership role, and those without training were placed in a leadership role and it created a dangerous situation," Creasy said.
"We couldn't go on with things working the way they were."
Before last night there were 44 volunteer firefighters in Banks County. Creasy said he worries about safety now that that number has dropped to only 11.
"We feel it's a pretty big hazard for citizens and we hate it that we were forced into this position," he said.
Before he came to Banks County, Creasy worked in fire service for 30 years. He said many of the volunteers are interested in offering their services to other communities.
So far, there is no comment from the fire chief or the county commission.
Copyright 2007 AccessNorthGa.com/WDUN News/Talk 550.
Republished with permission of AccessNorthGa.com.
