In a Facebook post from Monday Cedar Falls Firefighter’s Local 1366 strongly criticized a recent reshuffle of personnel. In that shake up, Fire Battalion Chief Curt Hildebrand was removed from his high ranking role and placed in charge of rental housing inspections. Hildebrand, who has 20 years experience as a firefighter, was replaced by Public Safety Supervisor Tim Smith. The move has upset firefighters and their supporters who have seen police cross trained as firefighters replacing more experienced firefighters. Smith has about 9 months of experience fighting fires. The Facebook post says that Hildebrand’s new role was previously manned by two part time civilians or a single full time civilian for far less pay in the past. They claim this is a move to have their fire department overtaken by police officers.
