Midway fire station could lose certification

The City of Midway could lose its only firehouse after the interim chief and most of the volunteer firefighting force resigned Monday evening. A state fire compliance officer has sent the city a letter giving them 30 days from that point to get the department back into compliance.

“The county has already said that they are absolutely not going to take over the City of Midway (fire department) without a decent amount of compensation for it,” Campbell said.

Mayor Levern Clancy said the city has an intergovernmental agreement with Liberty County for fire coverage: “I talked with Chief (Brian) Darby and he said, ‘No problem, we’ve got it handled’.”

Darby has said he does not get involved with negotiations between the city and county for fire coverage, and that those talks do not involve department heads.

County Manager Joey Brown e-mailed, “Right now, we are gathering data. There has been no commitment either way at this point. Until we can analyze everything I cannot answer definitively on any costs, equipment, etc. that may or may not be necessary. Sorry!!” Brown added that he “would not feel comfortable on commenting on” GFSTC’s ultimatum, as that was “solely a City of Midway issue.”

City, county in talks

Clancy, who had said the city would ask Liberty County to take over fire protection full time , added the city and county have had one meeting and that another is scheduled for Aug. 26. However, Clancy said, “I’m not gonna make no assumption because we’re still in a back and forth with the county, so I don’t know at this time.”

Campbell questions Clancy’s claims that the county has told him it would pick up the slack. He also alleges Clancy shut down the fire station as a form of retaliation after The Current and other news organizations reported on conditions at the dilapidated station.

The mayor said he had told firefighters in July not to enter the station after firefighters had showed The Current what appeared to be black mold on a ceiling tile and complained that the city had been unresponsive to requests for repairs to firefighting equipment . He said he had called police after Mayor Pro Tem Clemontine Washington “asked me about them being there on duty” and that he had told her training should take place “in the parking lot for the safety of the city.”

At Monday’s meeting, Washington told the council that Liberty County Fire “has been running calls due to the lack of volunteers,” and that it would keep running calls “as the city considers the various options for fire protection, but the citizens are still protected” by the county fire department.

Campbell said that Washington had texted him at 5:44 p.m., “Deputy Chief. Please be reminded that the fire station is closed. There is a sign on the door that should not be ignored.”

“Clancy called the cops on us”

He then texted firefighter/paramedic Scott Nordstrom, saying, “‘Hey buddy, you’ve gotta get out of that station, you cannot go inside the station, the sign’s on the door.’” He said Nordstrom left the station, and that he told Nordstrom to gas up Engines 1 and 2.

Campbell said he arrived at 7 p.m., finished some reports, then took the firefighters on a training run and left the station 5 or 10 minutes later. About 7:15, he said, “[Clancy] called the cops on us.”

According to Campbell, the officer told him, “‘I got a phone call that there was people here that wasn’t supposed to be here.’ And I said, ‘Not to my knowledge, sir, but we haven’t been here in the past hour.” Campbell asked who had made the call, “and he said, ‘Well, it was the mayor.’”

Clancy said he pulled up to the station, saw firefighters in the bay, and told them he had called the police “to let y’all know for your safety, don’t go in the building.”

And I said, ‘Okay, if I can’t go in the bay, then why did you tell me that I can still run calls?’ I said, ‘Because if I can’t go in the bay, that means I can’t get my truck out.’”

At that point, he said, Clancy stated, “‘Well, you don’t need to run calls anymore, the county will take care of it.”

Campbell added that, the day before, he had gone with the county on a structure fire call, and that two weeks earlier, he “rode some of the county’s calls while they were on a structure fire just to help them out so their calls got covered…. I’m not sure where you’re getting your information from but it’s incorrect.’ (Clancy) said, ‘Well, this is coming straight from the county.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m not sure who you’re talking to, but they’re lying to you. I’m not gonna sit here and argue with you. I have all of the reports and everything if you want to see them.’ He said, ‘No, that’s not necessary.’

Campbell: “Here’s my radio. I quit.”

Finally, Campbell said, ‘Okay, if I can’t even go inside the bay, I can’t run calls, but you want me to still do training.’ He said, ‘Yeah, you all can do training in the parking lot.’ I said, ‘No sir, we can’t…. If I cannot go in the station and get my truck out, if I can’t go inside the bay and get my truck out, and that means I can’t go in the bay and get my gear, then how am I supposed to be training?… You know what? That’s fine. ‘Here’s my radio. I quit. I’m done with this. You are taking the lives of everybody in this city in your own hands.’”

Campbell alleges the mayor had retaliated against the department for talking to reporters about station conditions. He called their encounter “very mind-blowing” and that he has “absolutely no idea” why Washington and Campbell, in his view, went after the volunteer fire department.

“They’re the ones who put me in that position to turn the department around,” he said. “I got all those guys who lost their certifications, I got all their certifications back, got all their records back on track to where they need to be at, and then (they) would pull this mess. I really don’t know.”

Clancy also said he didn’t understand how the relationship deteriorated: “I never started with anything hostile with them,” he said. “Mayor Pro Tem (Washington) always brings back what the fire department needs so we can talk about it. It never occurred to me there was nothing hostile between Mayor Pro Tem and the firefighters. It just threw me for a loop… and she said she don’t know nothing about it.”

Clancy: Citizens “don’t have to worry”

Caught in the middle are the citizens of Midway.

“The safety is still here,” Clancy said, promising that, in case of a structure fire, emergency medical, or other major incident, “The city or county will cover the call. Nothing has changed. E-911 is coming. Someone from the fire department is coming. So they don’t have to worry.”

Campbell disagrees. “The county has already said that they are absolutely not going to take over the City of Midway (fire department) without a decent amount of compensation for it,” he said, adding that if the county were to take over, “they have to hire a whole ‘nother crew of personnel to come in, and I mean, they’re not gonna do it for free.”

As for social media critics who say City Hall is ignoring citizens’ concerns, Clancy said, “We had a council seat open and you could come down here and qualify for three days. A bunch of people called but only one came down and qualified. So all they out there doing is making noise. They had all the chance to come down here and voice their opinion and everything would be all right. No one came down and qualified.” Clancy said Midway residents can call him at City Hall, (912) 884-3344, on his cell phone, (912) 332-4103, or stop him or council members in the street to talk for a few minutes if they want.

Campbell now has Monday nights to spend with his family after working his full-time job at another area fire department. He says he’s helped other volunteer firefighters find positions so they won’t lose their certification.

But he says he doesn’t understand how the city let its fire station get to this point.

“It sucks,” Campbell said. “I spent over 10 years at that place and I put in huge amounts of work and, you know, love that place more than anything,” Campbell said. “And somebody as, I don’t know, cold-hearted as the mayor just stomped on it. I don’t get that.”