GALATIA, Ill. (WSIL) -- A month after seven firefighters resigned from the Galatia Volunteer Fire Deparment the village's mayor says they have regained staff.
The village board also voted to purchase much-needed equipment for firefighters to do their jobs.
But one former fire captain said he was 'offended' to see equipment purchased following years of equipment requests that were not realized.
"We've been needing this for years," Tom Finley said.
Finley wondered why it took years for the board to purchase new breathing packs for the department. One former firefighter told News 3 that OSHA pulled the department's packs from their fire trucks during an inspection last month.
Self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) packs provide fresh oxygen to firefighters while they enter a burning building.
Mayor Stephen Sloan says the board will purchase four breathing packs with eight bottles for about $40,000. The money will come from the general fund, Sloan says. It's unclear when the devices will get to the fire station.
Sloan says they'll also test old packs to see if some can be used as backups. Sloan adds that the department is hiring more firefighters, bringing their total back up to 10. The department had five firefighters last month.
One former firefighter says the seven resigned after one firefighter, Travis Farley, was reinstated after being fired.
In 2008 Farley, then a Mounds Police officer, plead guilty to taking bribes from drivers instead of writing tickets. Illinois law prevents fire protection districts from hiring convicted felons.
Sloan says a lawyer pointed out that Galatia is a volunteer fire department and that there were no grounds to fire Farley.
"We are a non-fire protection district. If we were Harrisburg... sure," Sloan said. "We're a non-fire protection district so those [stipulations] don't apply."
Finley stayed with the department until last Saturday April 8 ending a three-year term as captain and 15 years with the department.
After the fire chief and assistant chief resigned last month, then-Captain Finley was left to handle leadership tasks. But Finley says he was left out of some decisions involving equipment and hiring.
"With the pushback I've been getting on not getting response and information from either side I just didn't have the feeling that I was wanted or needed," Finley said.
Finley says OSHA is leading an investigation into the department's equipment.
Sloan says the town is getting help from other departments as they wait for new equipment to come in. Firefighters are unable to go into burning buildings without their breathing packs.
"The Department of Labor did tell us that," Sloan said.
