With a heated dispute over firefighter staffing as a backdrop, Middletown's fire chief is leaving.
Peter Faerber will be off the job Feb. 14.
He has been with the department for 23 years but has been chief for only a little more than two years. Faerber told NBC 10 News Friday he's retiring for personal reasons and he had been thinking about it for a while, but the current staffing fight was a factor.
"I don't think I've been as effective as I would like to be at the job," Faerber told NBC 10.
The on-going debate between the firefighters' union and town leaders over staffing came to a head last week, when Middletown had to rely on other neighboring fire departments to get to a fire first because they were on another call.
In that fire, a father and daughter were burned as the dad went in to rescue the 11-year-old girl.