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A controversy about the number of Decherd firemen working per shift has resulted in an employee being reprimanded for posts he made on Facebook that have been deemed inaccurate and against city policy by his superiors.

Mayor Mary Nell Hess and Fire Chief Chuck Williams agreed Fireman Ryan Steele was out of line for statements he made on Facebook on Aug. 19 that have led to a letter of reprimand with Steele being required to make a public apology for his actions.

Steele’s initial post said:

“Decherd does it again … they cut a position from each shift in July due to budget constraints, leaving the fire department down to three men on shift at a time. This is below the NFPA guidelines of a four-man minimum, making our job a lot more dangerous. Now they have decided to cut us by 14 hours per pay period, which will drastically cut an already below-average firefighter salary but, more importantly, leave only two men on shift a lot of the time. The city has chosen to put our lives and the public’s lives in great danger. The standard for firefighting is that to make entry into a fire, you have to have two men inside and two men outside ready to go in. We were already operating below that. Now we will only have two men available most of the time. The fire department has faced the biggest cuts this past year, which has absolutely killed morale, so relying on people to come back in for calls is virtually nonexistent. They claim this is temporary, but so were the cuts last year that turned into layoffs … I urge everyone to call their elected officials and let them know how they feel about this.”

Hess said the statement was inaccurate and led to harsh criticism being posted on Facebook.

“There were a lot of problems related to what he had done, and if he has a problem, he should have gone through the proper channels instead of going ballistic over something that’s not true,” Hess said.

Williams echoed Hess’ assessment.

“Don’t believe everything you read on Facebook,” he said, referring to Steele’s post. “What he said is false.”

Williams said there will never be fewer than three firefighters on duty per shift.

“We used to have four. Now it’s three with four during the day with me on shift,” he said, adding that at least three firefighters will always be on duty “24/7, 365 days a year.”