By Karissa Minn
kminn@salisburypost.com
EAST SPENCER – Nearby fire departments ran calls for East Spencer Tuesday after the town’s chief stopped its service Monday evening.
The shutdown was prompted by an internal dispute between some firefighters and Chief Shawn McBride, town officials said Tuesday.
The East Spencer Fire Department should reopen today, McBride said. In the meantime, the town has been covered by Salisbury and other fire departments that already respond to East Spencer calls.
“We’re just having some personnel issues, and we weren’t sure if we were going to have coverage throughout the night,” McBride said. “We should be back up and running Wednesday morning.”
McBride said the department has had “personnel issues” since the time he started working there, and he’s trying his best to resolve them.
He said he has meetings scheduled with town officials today and Thursday to talk about his concerns.
Multiple sources said they thought the problem involved firefighter training, but McBride said that’s not the reason for the shutdown.
Some firefighters did not show up at a mandatory meeting Monday night, he said. He didn’t specify whether they were paid staff or volunteers.
When he saw the absences, McBride made calls to nearby departments saying that East Spencer was out of service and making sure the town had fire protection.
Salisbury Fire Chief Bob Parnell said the Salisbury, Spencer, Miller Ferry and Union fire departments already provide mutual aid to East Spencer. At about 7:30 p.m. Monday, he said, they were simply asked to cover more of their calls for a day or two.
“The town of East Spencer runs about 200 to 300 fire calls a year,” Parnell said. “The impact is very minimal on the fire department in Salisbury.”
Rowan County Fire Marshal Tom Murphy said he’s not aware of any legal or safety problems with the brief shutdown, and he agreed that it shouldn’t be a large burden on the other departments.
“I haven’t ever seen that happen, but I’ve only been here six years,” Murphy said.
At least one firefighter and a receptionist were at the station Tuesday afternoon, along with the town’s parked firetrucks.
Mayor Barbara Mallett said she doesn’t want the residents of East Spencer to be alarmed, because they still have fire protection no matter what.
“We just have to regroup, come back in step and see how we move forward from here,” she said. “We’ll see if it should happen again, how it should be handled.”
Both Mallett and Town Administrator Macon Sammons said they stand behind the chief and his right to declare the department out of service.
“The chief made the decision that that was the best way to handle the situation,” Sammons said. “He had some requirements of them that one or more didn’t want to follow.”
But one member of the Town Board of Aldermen, at least, is unhappy with McBride.
“He did not get prior approval to do this from the board,” said Tammy Corpening. “I need to better understand what authority this man has been given. I know I haven’t given him the authority to shut down the fire department. Maybe if nothing else, we need to clear that up.”
Corpening said she would understand if there was an urgent safety issue that caused the break in service. But from what she knows about the situation, she said, personnel issues don’t qualify.
“We have over 23 people on our roster,” and eight of them are paid, she said. “I think that’s more than enough people to handle an emergency situation in the town of East Spencer.”
She said she’s still looking into the matter and hopes it will be addressed at the town board meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Contact reporter Karissa Minn at 704-797-4222.
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