The struggle between the board of directors and members of the Kelly-Kelton Fire Department escalated this past week with the firing of the chief and assistant chief and the resignation of several other firefighters.

Board Chairman Hoyt Haney said Monday evening that during last Tuesday’s board meeting he told Chief Kim Hill and her husband, Dennis Hill, the assistant chief, they had been terminated and to turn in their gear, radios, keys and any other property belonging to the fire district and to vacate their offices. Haney said the primary reason for their dismissal was a letter he said she wrote to the Union County Council, the county attorney and State Rep. Mike Anthony asking that the board be terminated and criminally prosecuted. He said Mrs. Hill asked him why they were being terminated and he said because “it was in the best interests of the fire department, the board and the community that they be terminated.”

Mrs. Hill said Monday evening she did write a letter to the council, Anthony, the county attorney and the new supervisor about what she said was the board’s violations including the members reappointing themselves without advertising in the media for the public to apply for seats on the board. She also took the board to task for failing to have fire equipment properly maintained and repaired and for failing to supply the department with up to date fire equipment and firefighter safety as well as medical supplies and extrication equipment.

“I have not yet spoke personally with any of them,” Mrs. Hill said. “No one I wrote to has contacted me.”

Haney said Mrs. Hill also withheld a Sept. 3 letter from OSHA about citations the organization had issued the district until a a Sept. 13 special meeting of the board which she requested. Haney said at that time the board learned of the OSHA citations but said Mrs. Hill should have notified them so they could have been fully addressed before the OSHA inspector arrived. He said he met with the inspector whom he said pointed out a few minor violations that the district has since addressed.

Mrs. Hill said she received a phone call from OSHA informing her the department had been sent a letter about a complaint the agency had received. She said she told the OSHA representative that she had not received any letter from the agency. Mrs. Hill said she gave them her fax number and they sent her a copy of the letter. She said it turned out she did not get the letter because OSHA had used a Union address rather than the department’s Kelly-Kelton address and the letter had been returned to the agency without her seeing it.

Haney added it was Mrs. Hill’s responsibility as chief to let the board know about any and all of the department’s needs. He said the board did not learn of these things until they were cited by OSHA.

Mrs. Hill said she did not know the distict was in violation of OSHA regulations until she got the letter. She said during the meeting, Haney directed board member Bruce Inman to type up the minutes of the meeting and get them to her. At that point she was to mail the minutes of the meeting to OSHA which would show the matter had been discussed and a course of action decided upon. She said she did not receive the minutes of that meeting and so she was unable to convey anything to OSHA. This in turn led to OSHA’s investigation of the district.

Haney said he has been informed by OSHA he will soon receive a letter allowing him to request a hearing and present the results of the district’s effort to address all violations cited by the agency. The violations included a lack of an infection control plan; no TB testing, pulmonary function testing, no SCBA flow test, no SCBA fit test; no written plan; no lockout tagout system; no emergency action plan; no medical evaluations; no eyewash; and improper storage of flammabe and combustible liquids. He said all of these have been addressed by the district and he will report that to OSHA.

Another reason Haney said the board fired Mrs. Hill and her husband was she’d had a State Trooper come over from Gaffney to inspect the district’s fire trucks. Haney said she wrote a letter to the board stating the trooper had said if he caught one of the trucks on the road he’d fine the district $10,000 and then turn the matter over to the SCDOT for further prosecution. He said the truck was not in bad shape requiring only a few minor repairs.

Mrs. Hill said a trooper did come by and deem the truck unsafe. She said she was not the one who called in the trooper, it was another firefighter. The truck, she said, has not been repaired.

Haney said there was also an oil spill behind the fire station that was reported to DHEC and the district was required to dig it up and dispose of it at a cost of $4,000. He said Mrs. Hill did not inform the board of the oil spill or the DHEC letter when it could have been handled earlier and at less cost to the district.

Mrs. Hill said the oil came from the servicing of the fire trucks. She said when she became chief, the trucks had not been serviced in as much as five years. Mrs. Hill said she attempted to handle the spill by having a local resident with a backhoe dig up the polluted ground. She said she was trying to follow DHEC regulations for the clean up and disposal of the polluted property. DHEC said it would cost no more than $350 to dispose of the dirt but the board brought in a company from Columbia to remove the dirt and that’s what caused the price to increase to $3,488.

In addition to the dismissal of Mr. and Mrs. Hill, Haney said four other firefighters resigned that night. This leaves the district with only six firefighters. Haney, however, said the board will meet tonight at 7 p.m. to appoint a new chief and assistant chief and hire new firefighters.

The battle between the board and the Hills and their fellow dissidents broke into public view Oct. 6 during a quarterly board meeting. During the meeting, Haney repeatedly defended the board saying it had given the fire department everything it had ever asked for but had not raised the district’s tax millage because the people of the district would not stand for it.

Mrs. Hill and her fellow firefighters countered that the department’s ability had been hampered by the board’s failure to provide adequate funding to ensure its equipment was in good working order. She pointed out one fire truck had been broken down for months and the tanker had pinholes in it which she was having to plug with epoxy.

Kelly-Kelton’s millage stands at 20 mills which generates $37,424 a year in revenue. Mrs. Hill pointed out the district is paying $16,000 for the 2004 fire truck leaving just over $20,000 a year for operating expenses, including maintenance and new equipment. She said this was preventing the department from being in compliance with ISO regulations which in turn was driving up insurance premiums forcing residents to pay more than $1,100 each year for fire insuance.

Haney and the board, however, reiterated their position that they’d always provided the department with everything Mrs. Hill and previous fire chiefs had requested and that maintenance was being done in a timely manner by trained mechanics. He said that millage would not be raised unless a majority of the people in the district voted to do so. Haney offered to conduct a survey on the matter but said he thought not one-in-ten would support it.

Mrs. Hill and others countered that they believed the people of the district would support a millage increase if it was explained how a small tax increase could improve fire safety and reduce insurance rates.

The board’s troubles continued in November when former firefighter Bryan Farr filed a lawsuit against the board claiming it violated the Freedom of Information Act when it failed to provide him the information he’d requested.

Farr, who at one time held the rank of captain in the fire department, said he filed the request in response to concerns voiced by some of the district’s firefighters about the board’s administrative practices and its failure to comply with the statutes and ordinances which established the district.

In his suit, Farr claims the board failed to respond to the request which he submitted Sept. 2.