The meeting was called after the city's 20-year-old ladder truck failed to start at one of the two huge structure fires that occurred almost simultaneously early Saturday morning.
The truck has had to be towed three times in the last three months and has been experiencing electrical and fuel problems for months.
Councilman Jimmy Davenport promised the large crowd in attendance Monday night that the issue would not be "swept under the rug" but also said the city did not have the money to purchase a truck right now.
Davenport said the city's grant writer Kay Simmons was working very hard to find money either from the state or federal government to help pay for a new truck.
According to Fire Chief Billy Poole a new ladder truck will cost approximately $600,000 and take up to a year to order and have built.
Councilman Doug Nash blames poor maintenance on the truck for its problems saying he had never seen a fuel pump that was on the current truck in such bad shape.
Firefighter Phillip Ferguson, who was one of the firemen to respond to the two fires this past weekend, said he has never been so embarrassed in the ten years he has worked as a fireman as he was Saturday and that he took offense to Nash saying they fire department wasn't going a good enough job keeping their trucks up.
Ferguson told Nash the fire department was short handed and if he thought he could do a better job to "come on out."
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