Hours after Onalaska fire commissioners voted 2-1 Thursday to fire Chief Andrew Martin with no explanation, a third of the district’s staff and volunteers had turned in their gear and resigned, Martin told The Chronicle Friday.
“Slowly people started turning in their gear,” he said. “It’s pretty significant.”
Martin said he expected more to resign in the next few days. Furthermore, the board did not vote to appoint a new chief or formally place anyone else in charge.
Board members Bill Kassel and Rich Bainbridge voted to terminate Martin after a brief executive session at the end of the meeting.
Fire Commissioner Jeff Lee, who voted against firing Martin, said Friday he doesn’t know who is in charge at the district.
“We left that meeting without putting anyone in charge,” Lee said. “I think it left a lot of doors open, doing something like that at the end of the meeting.”
Lee said there was no discussion among the commissioners about the firing.
“I think they made their minds up before,” he said.
Lee said he couldn’t speculate about why the other commissioners wanted Martin out.
The Chronicle attempted to contact commissioners Kassel and Bainbridge.
Kassel did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a listed number for Bainbridge was not hooked up to voicemail.
Martin said he believes the decision to fire him began when he reprimanded a family member of Kassel’s, a firefighter in the district, for allegedly buying an expensive stethoscope through the district and using it on her own time.
Martin said he was asked by the commissioners, minus Lee, to reprimand the firefighter who reported the incident with the stethoscope, but Martin refused, believing the alleged violations were baseless.
“Basically what it comes down to is just conflicts of interest,” he said. “It kind of started a while ago but it slowly progressed.”
Lee said the commission will have to schedule a meeting to discuss the issue further and decide how to rebuild its department after losing so many volunteers.
Martin said the future of the district will be up to the community.
