LYNCHBURG, Va. – Members of the Lynchburg fire department voiced concerns to the city council Tuesday over working conditions, including overtime, salary compression, recruitment and retention.
Jamie Maxwell, president of the Lynchburg Firefighters Association, said firefighters have worked 7,800 hours of overtime since January — more than 4,000 of those were mandatory.
“Your firefighters are tired. We’re tired of working overtime. We care about our citizens, we care about everybody here [at the city council meeting], we want to do the right thing. We need [city council] to do the right thing, we need [interim city manager] Doctor [Reid] Wodicka to do the right thing, we need the fire chief to do the right thing,” said Maxwell during the public comment portion of the meeting.
The association says 45 veteran firefighters left the department since 2018, with only 20 percent of those being regular retirements.
10 News has reached out to the department for comment.