CHICAGO (CBS) — A battle over who will lead the Merrionette Park Fire Department has led to the sudden departure of more than a dozen firefighters and emergency medical technicians.
At least 17 firefighters were off the job Tuesday as the south suburban village deals with a huge shakeup within its ranks.
The situation appears to stem from a disagreement about leadership.
Longtime Merrionette Park Fire Chief Len Edling retired at the end of April, according to the Merrionette Park Firefighters Association page on Facebook. That led to a battle with village officials over who would lead the department going forward.
Amid the dispute, four veteran firefighters were not reappointed to their positions in the department. That led 13 other firefighters to resign in support of their displaced colleagues. An 18th firefighter was not expected to return from a leave of absence.
CBS 2 was told the department has a pool of 21 paid on-call firefighters on the roster to fill in for the firefighters who were not reassigned or who have resigned. They expect to increase that number to 30 by the end of May.
According to the village website, there are 36 paid on-call firefighters, but by CBS 2’s county, just less than half were no longer on the job as of Tuesday morning.
from CBS Chicago http://ift.tt/2oTA0f8
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