Charlotte’s volunteer firefighters are negotiating an agreement with city officials for their return.
That's after the group's mass resignation Monday evening during a city council meeting.
The 23 volunteer firefighters cited poor communication between the fire department and city officials.
Shortly after, the department's fire chief also submitted his resignation to the city manager.
Chris Burt has been volunteering as a firefighter for more than 25 years. He says it wasn't easy for his team to resign.
"It was the hardest thing we had to do. We didn't take it lightly. All 23 of us cried at one point or another because God forbid someone dies, or there's a house fire and someone loses property or life because we walked out. That weighs on you." he explained.
Burt says over the course of three years, there have been several communication breakdowns between the department and the city.
Charlotte Mayor Mike Armitage says he was caught completely off guard by the resignation of the firefighters.
"I want to find out what exactly it is that they don't feel supported in, and I think part of it may be it's just the dialogue and communication and looking at how that communication flows," Armitage said.
So far, the volunteer team and city officials have been in close communication over the last few days and hope to present a plan to the rest of the team before the end of the week.
“If everybody's happy with what we came up with from our meeting, then our goal is to pick our gear up tonight and get back to doing what we love to do ... that's protecting our community," Burt said.
The department currently employs six full-time staff and rely heavily on their volunteers when responding to emergencies.
"We have a station on each side of the road tracks, so each of those stations has a captain or a lieutenant that is on duty 24 hours, and then they do a rotation," he said. "So, at any time, there's always one person on duty, and then the rest is volunteers."
Last year, the fire department responded to more than 1,000 emergencies.
Neighboring agencies are assisting the fire department while negotiations continue.
