BLUFFTON, Ind. (WPTA) - Crews from the Bluffton Fire Department are still working to prevent the fire from reigniting at the Washington Square Building.
Thursday, nearly a dozen other departments were called to help Bluffton battle the blaze. The reason, a shortage of firefighters, was made worse due to some on-call and volunteer firefighters not being allowed to leave their day jobs to help fight the fire.
RELATED: Several departments battle large fire in downtown Bluffton
Earlier this week, 21Alive spoke with Bluffton Fire Department leaders, who say they are already short-staffed and looking for recruits.
“You know if we showed up and all we had arrived was the people we have on duty, we’d be in trouble,” Bluffton Deputy Fire Chief Chris Wolf said. “The safety of the people coming off the truck could suffer, too.”
Thursday, as smoke filled the air and the historic building went up in flames, two firefighters were trapped inside the attic and a mayday was called.
“There were very few crews outside being able to go in and rescue the two firefighters who were trapped inside,” Bluffton Fire Chief Don Craig said. “That’s a direct effect of not having the staff that we need to have to keep our people safe.”
That mayday brought fire departments from four other counties to help get the fire under control. Chief Craig says the shortage of firefighters gets worse when fires happen during the day.
“It’s rough,” Craig said. “Daytime weekday fires are the roughest to get people...
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