SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. - NBC Nebraska in Scottsbluff obtained a resignation from a Ralland Smith and Nathaniel Urdiales, along with a statement from Dustin Spengler who states he was with Scottsbluff Rural Fire until Jan. 21st.

"I, Ralland K Smith hereby resign my position as firefighter for Scottsbluff rural fire department on January 21st of 2020 as I am unable to fulfill the duties under a chief that is not able health wise or physical wise to perform the duties of a chief and trust is an issue with me. With Paul Reisig as Chief I have a lack of confidence in him so I will have to step down as a firefighter."

Spengler, who sends the letter to NBC Nebraska this morning, states:

“As one of the 6 that resigned willingly after the decision the rural board made to oust Rusty and Malinda by removing him as chief and her as president of the association telling them to resign or be removed. I just want to thank the community for the love and support being shown during this upsetting time.... I can’t speak for all of us but I will say that I have been a vol. firefighter for 4 years now 2 on another dept. and 2 here at Scottsbluff rural and I have never seen a volunteer board fight against a chief and its members so hard when asking for equipment and other items to benefit the dept. and its members to keep them safe and fighting fire in the 21st. Century instead of the 1800s. To make a decision like they did to oust rusty and Malinda over personal vendettas after all the time they have all spent with the rest of us making that dept. Clean and working with us to make it better for all of our members with the extra trainings, better equipment, and other misc. changes for the better to work closely with other depts. To change the way our dept. was looked at for the past couple years was a blow to gut for us. We all became a family and it might be childish to some or seem like were putting people at risk or not caring about the oath we took but when you can’t trust a chief to run into that building if one of us went down due to his health and age on the fire line can you be ok not really being guaranteed to go home to your own family??? I can’t and I knew rusty had our backs and if anyone went down he was coming to get you no questions asked. I lost my family mostly due to the time and effort I spent down at our dept. Instead of at home I resigned as lieutenant back in Nov. Down to firefighter to take a step back and work on family life and had huge support from my chief rusty. And to say that I went through a lot is an understatement but to go through all that with everything we've accomplished and have this happen everything I did or we did was all did was for nothing. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room for most of us resigning it's not what we wanted to do or intended to do, we all strive to be vol. firefighters we have a passion for it, it's not for everyone but we were in it for the long haul but decisions were made we were told nothing we could do will change it, we were stabbed in the back by a fellow firefighter someone we thought was family to us but turned the other cheek that night we resigned. But me personally I cannot stay in a dept. Where lines are crossed and a board can do what they want without the consideration of how the members feel or ask our opinions or fight us tooth and nail for tools to help us do the job right and safe. Again I do not speak for all of us but I wanted to thank everyone who is supportive of us and our decisions to leave and to give everyone a little insight as to what did go on the public should know why we left and how hard it was for us to leave not just based on loyalty and respect rusty but for our safety as well it matters just as much as anyone else's that we respond to help.”

Urdiales, who sends the letter to NBC Nebraska this morning, states:

"I Nathaniel Urdiales hereby resign my position as Rural 6 Lieutenant and Firefighter status with the Scottsbluff Rural Fire Department effective immediately due to the fact that I have lack of trust and confidence in the new fire chief. I have been working very hard to get this position and will not work under the new chief's circumstances. I will come back to this department only to have Rusty Schaupp as my chief because I trust him fully and had been a great leader."

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Nine firefighters also submitted a petition of a vote of no confidence in the Chief that the Rural Fire Board has appointed.

Chief Paul Reisig states he cannot go into a personnel file and that there are no major problems inside the department. He added that about 50% of the resignation letters came from family members of those leaving.

Chief Reisig added if there are issues eluded to that would be among different personalities and you do have personality issues sometimes in these situations.

When asked if anything he said during an interview Thursday morning was or was not in the resignation letters Reisig states nothing he said was in the resignation letters.

He added the department is moving forward with young people coming in while bringing back experienced people to try to turn it around. Chief Reisig added they are putting this behind them.