The community of Bonanza is without fire protection services following Thursday's resignation of the fire chief and nine volunteers.
Fire Chief Lana Lee claims that the district board has cut her wages, made false accusations against her, and even limited her access to department mail. Chief Lee submitted her resignation last night at a fire district board meeting.
Lee explains. "After my resignation, my volunteers also went and grabbed their equipment bags, and handed in, basically, their resignations also."
Chris Harder is the Training Officer for the fire department. "Actually, there is no fire department. There are no certified firefighters that will be able to respond to fire calls in the jurisdiction, until they are either replaced, or the volunteers decided to come back and the chief is reinstated."
Fire District Board President Frank Hammerich was not available for comment. It is believed that Lee may have been the only female fire chief in Oregon.
Lee joined the Bonanza department in 1990, and took over the position of Chief from her grandfather upon his retirement in the year 2000.
Update: The department will rely on its mutual aid agreement with District No. 5 and District No. 1 to serve the Bonanza area in the meantime, according to The Herald and News of Klamath Falls.
