Baker was accused by the Austin Firefighters Association (AFA) of refusing to deploy firefighters to Kerr County to aid those impacted by flash floods. The AFA said that it was "absolutely outrageous" and an "egregious dereliction of duty" for him to deny the deployment of the firefighters. The AFA President Bob Nicks has called for his removal and a vote of no confidence will be held online from July 15-17.
"It brings the Austin Firefighters no pleasure to report to the community that the Austin Fire Chief DENIED the deployment of Austin firefighters to Kerrville until very late into the event (so today!)," the AFA posted on Facebook, "with the exception of only 3 AFD rescue swimmers who helped staff help teams (which still were NOT deployed until the afternoon of the 4th).
"The Austin Firefighter Special Operations teams are specially trained for Hill Country swift water rescue and are some of the best, if not the best, swift water boat teams in the State of Texas.
"It is absolutely outrageous that the Austin Fire Chief, Joel G. Baker, would not allow highly trained firefighters from Austin to respond to Kerrville. Because of this egregious dereliction of duty, LIVES WERE VERY LIKELY LOST BECAUSE OF CHIEF BAKER’S DECISION!
"Deployment orders came down from the State of Texas on July 2. We would've been pre-deployed before the waters even began to rise! It is unforgivable that a fire chief would NOT allow his firefighters to answer the call to save lives.
"Why would Fire Chief Joel G. Baker do this, you may ask? It was a misguided attempt to save money. I say 'misguided' because the fire department is fully reimbursed by the state to deploy. I explained the reimbursement process to Chief Baker last week, and he failed to understand this very simple concept.
"We are disgusted with our fire chief. He needs to be held accountable and fired for his disgraceful dereliction of duty. The Austin Firefighters are starting a vote of no confidence on Tuesday on the fire chief.
"As disgusted as we are at our Austin Fire Department leadership, the Austin Firefighters Association made a decision to not air our dirty laundry while victims and bodies were still being recovered. But it's now July 7, and it's time that we hold accountable our disgraced fire chief, AND anybody else in his leadership circle who are responsible for this horrendous act.
"The Austin Firefighters commit to being transparent to the community about this process to remove our fire chief and hold all of those accountable who were part of this atrocity.
"The firefighters hope we have your support, because it's going to get ugly. I can't possibly express to you how outraged and sickened the firefighters are that we were not allowed to do the job—the job that we have trained so hard and long to do—during the historic floods that just occurred in Kerrville. We could've made a difference, and we were forced to stand down and lives were lost.
"The community deserves a fire chief who cares about the community as much as our firefighters, and that is simply not the case. Joel G. Baker must go!"
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