Retirements have thinned the ranks of the Muncie Fire Department this year, but Chief Alan Richards said the loss of personnel has not effected the firefighters' ability to do their jobs.
These jobs include protecting Ball State University students, he said.
Richards said that a high volume of people have retired this year, and the retirees built up vacation and sick days so they could leave their posts early. The fighters who have left are still getting paid through their severance days, he said, leaving the department unable to fill those positions until the retirees are off the books.
"It doesn't affect our ability to do our jobs," Richards said. "What it does is put a burden on the staffing level."
Battalion Chief Jim Clevenger said the department normally averaged around three or four retirements a year. This year, however, they have had 17, he said.
"At one point in [the department's] history, there were 20 people hired at the same time," he said. "Now, all those people are retiring at the same time. This is a once-in-a-career problem for the department."
The department is currently missing a deputy chief, a chief inspector of fire prevention, several captains and several more lieutenants, Richards said.
He said despite the loss of so many personnel, the department has never had to be below its minimum level of firefighters per battalion.
Clevenger said the loss of fighters had made it difficult for him to schedule the right people at the right time. He said that many times, firefighters must work more overtime and different shifts.
"Normally, the same people work the same shift every day," he said. "The problem now is the shifts are composed of different people every day."
Clevenger said that sergeants were routinely having to do the job of a lieutenant one night, then the next night having to do that of a young firefighter. The strain has been felt heaviest on the scheduling aspect of his job, he said.
"It's been a logistics nightmare," he said.
After mid-December, the positions will be able to be filled, Clevenger said. In the next couple of years few people are up for retirement, he said.
Richards said one of the more important positions, deputy chief, would not be filled until 2008. Richards was the deputy chief who inherited the position of chief six months ago when the previous one retired. He said he expected to be relieved back to a position of lieutenant when the new mayor takes office at the beginning of the new year.
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