PRIEST RIVER, Idaho (AP) -- The entire 22-member volunteer fire department in this small northern Idaho logging town has been suspended after one member was arrested on charges of raping a 16-year-old girl enrolled in the department's Junior Firefighter program.
Firefighter Bryon Morgan, 29, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Wednesday in 1st District Court in Sandpoint. He was arrested July 22 for the alleged incident, which authorities said took place two days earlier.
Morgan is out of jail after posting bail.
Priest River City Attorney Phil Robinson said the City Council's decision to suspend the volunteer fire department is part of an administrative review spurred by allegations surrounding the case.
Morgan is the only suspect, officials said.
''This issue has brought up some issues of personnel management in the department,'' Robinson said, declining to give specifics.
In order not to leave the city unprotected as the peak of fire season on the northern Idaho Panhandle approaches, Priest River signed a pact with the nearby West Pend Oreille Fire District to provide service to the city of about 2,000.
The 30-day interim contract includes a clause to let the city to renew the agreement if necessary.
Morgan is suspected of agreeing to take the teen home after a training session July 20. She alleges that he instead drove her to a remote area and demanded she have sex with him, threatening to beat and abandon her if she refused.
