Meeting Leaves Cashion Firefighters, Residents In Limbo

Jacqueline Sit, News 9

CASHION, Oklahoma -- Earlier this month the cashion city council voted to stop paying the fire chief. In a heated meeting Thursday night, the council asked all firefighters to re-apply for their jobs.

 The fire chief said the fire department is the cornerstone of Cashion and he doesn't know what is going to happen to his firefighters.  But until he does, safety is a huge priority for their town.

Fireworks sparked Wednesday night as the Cashion City Council asked the entire fire department to reapply for positions, a move that's causing confusion within the community.

"I can't really understand where they're coming from with that, but the applications that they gave us weren't town applications," Cashion Fire Chief Chantz Robinson said.

Robinson and his firefighters want answers, but the city council members have remained tight-lipped about their requests only saying the department is under investigation.

News 9 attempted to contact city council members all day, but received no responses.

"I'm going to keep doing my job and the firefighters are going to keep doing their jobs, but it seems like every step that we try to take to keep doing our jobs, they put up another road block in front of us," Robinson said.

Cashion business owner Kimberly Yancey said the local firefighters do a great job, but supports the city's decision requiring firefighters to reapply.

"Our people that are put in these positions should reapply to make sure if they need extra training, maybe classes for safety reasons, I think it's a good idea," Yancey said.

No matter what happens, Chief Robinson said they will keep serving the public.

"Basically, if we had a bucket and five gallons of water, the firefighters would want to do their jobs, no matter what steps the town takes to, you know, try to stand in our way," Robinson said.

"Sometimes when change happens it happens for a reason we all don't know why," Yancey said.  "But sometimes in the near future we find out why.  So I think people maybe need to take a breath and figure out what's happening with the next step-- maybe."