Lawton Firefighters Sound Alarm On City Leadership’s ‘Dangerous Decision’

UPDATE, 4:54 p.m. Wednesday, April 16: The City of Lawton issued a press release in response to the Lawton Fire Fighters Association claim that city leadership is reducing the staff of the Lawton Fire Department's ladder trucks. In the press release, the City of Lawton that city leadership "has implemented temporary limitations on overtime backfilling due to rising costs across all departments - including Fire."

The press release also stated that city leadership "has not made any changes to the standard staffing levels for ladder trucks."

The City of Lawton Fire Department has been in contention with city leadership over the 2025-2026 budget as the department continues to seek raises for firefighters while the city is considering cutting staff and closing stations. The Lawton Firefighters Association recently sounded the alarms to Lawton citizens about a recent "dangerous decision" city leadership has made to limit the staffing of ladder trucks.

The Lawton Firefighters Association posted the update to its Facebook page on Wednesday, April 16. The post stated that the association wanted to inform the citizens of Lawton of the "dangerous decision made by city leadership." The association indicated that city leadership made a decision on Wednesday, April 16, to staff ladder trucks with two firefighters instead of the nationally recommended four.

According to the Lawton Firefighters Association, the decision to reduce personnel on ladder trucks will risk the safety of citizens and firefighters. The statement from the association explained that ladder trucks "are critical for rescues, ventilation, and gaining access to upper floors during fires and emergencies."

Ladder trucks typically respond to structure fires, rescues and major emergencies. The repercussions from limiting personnel on the truck from two to four, according to the association, includes slow responses to calls, increased risk to victims and limits firefighters' ability to respond.

Lawton Firefighters Association encourages citizens to contact their council members.

The Lawton Firefighters Association issued a call to action to citizens to contact their ward's council members and to "demand full staffing of your ladder trucks." The association reiterated that their statement and call to action are not acts of politics but of concern for public safety.

As of 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, the City of Lawton has not issued a statement in response to the Lawton Firefighters Association.

The 2025-2026 budget season has been contentious between the Lawton Fire Department and city leadership.

The Lawton Fire Department and city leadership have been going back and forth this year over firefighter wages during 2025-2026 budget discussions. There have been multiple City Council meetings with the fire department's budget on the agenda. In early February, KSWO received, via an Open Records Request, a copy of a third-party study that evaluated Lawton's Fire Department and found three main points of concern:

• The condition of the department's stations and emergency vehicles "by the apparent lack of dedicated dollars."
• The Lawton Fire Department is at the bottom of the pay and benefit scale when compared to peer cities, which causes the department to struggle with firefighter retention.
• The department has received an increased number of emergency calls, which could cause great strain if continued.

The community and the spouses of firefighters began to voice concerns over the lack of attention the study was receiving from city leadership as talks continued up no wage increases, cuts to personnel and closing of stations. The Lawton Firefighters Association accused city leadership of skewing the narrative of the study. And the President of the Professional Firefighters of Oklahoma, which oversees the state's union, also told KSWO that it has always been city leadership's intention to issue cutbacks at the Lawton Fire Department.

All of it came to head at a Lawton City Council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 11 when Lawton firefighters and other local firefighters attended the meeting in favor of wage increases for firefighters. Lawton Fire Chief Jared Williams spoke to council members, along with Nolan Berry from the Local 1882 Firefighters Association. Berry indicated that the study found that Lawton firefighters were overworked and underpaid while the council members agreed, they still argued that the study did not give direction on how to remedy the situation.

No action was taken that evening on the agenda item regarding wages for firefighters, but the conversation witnessed a fiery ending, specifically from Lawton Mayor Stan Booker, who became frustrated with Chief Williams and yelled "cease and desists" from the dais.