The Austin Fire Chief is under fire by the Austin Fire Association for his delayed response in sending firefighters to help with the Texas flood, which has now claimed the lives of nearly 120, with another 173 missing.

Here’s more from CBS Austin:

The Austin Fire Association had strong words for Fire Chief Joel Baker Monday, claiming his delay on sending firefighters to assist in Kerrville over the holiday weekend may have cost lives.

“I have firefighters that are in the area that are hanging their head in shame,” A.F.A. President Bob Nicks said. “People in the community are asking, why wasn’t the Austin firefighters here to help us?”

Nicks says when the Hill Country is in trouble, the Austin Fire Department has a responsibility to respond.

“This is in our backyard,” Nicks said. “We know people in that area. We have family in those areas, it was incredibly tragic.”

He says Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker denied the deployment of Austin firefighters to Kerrville until just Monday morning, outside three rescue swimmers who he says had to pull strings to be there.

“We started having community members post to our page, why weren’t you guys here? Why were Austin firefighters not showing up?” Nicks said. “I figured if they’re communicating like that, it’s time they know the rest of the story.”

CBS Austin reached out to the Austin Fire Department, who says besides those three swimmers deployed on Friday, eight firefighters were sent over the weekend to assist efforts in northwest Travis County. Another six were deployed Monday morning to assist Texas Task Force One in Kerrville.

The chief goes on to say the decision on allocating resources is not simple, and the department had to prioritize having the right manpower available at home in the face of this weekend’s unpredictable weather and flooding in our own area.

Nicks says he doesn’t buy it.

“Chief Baker is so concerned about, you know, squeezing pennies here and saving money rather than saving people.” Nicks said. “We have the capacity to do both, and we’ve done both many, many times. So that’s just disingenuous for the chief to suggest that. What he was trying to do here is save money.”

With nearly 40 years of firefighting experience, he says he doesn’t make these claims lightly.

“I used to be a part of the original swift water team. I know the conditions. I know what happens in the field and areas and things like and conditions like this and swift water,” Nicks said. “I absolutely believe that lives were lost because Austin firefighters did not deploy.”

Now he’s calling for a vote of no confidence amongst his membership, calling it a disgraceful dereliction of duty.

“This is just the tipping point where we can no longer pretend the fire chief is competent enough to be our leader.” Nicks said. “It’s just so egregious that we cannot sit back and be dishonest with the citizens and not let them know that their public safety is at risk with a fire chief like this at the helm making these sorts of decisions.”

If a no confidence vote is called Tuesday, Nicks says the results will be announced by next Thursday.

This morning video emerged of the Austin Fire Chief pushing DEI policies, claiming he wanted his fire department to be more diverse with Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and members of the LGBT community:

What a clown, just like what we saw in Los Angeles after the horrific wildfires.