SPOKANE, Wash. — A lawsuit between City of Spokane firefighters and former mayor Nadine Woodward is headed back to court.
In 2021, 25 SFD firefighters were fired for not getting the Covid-19 vaccine, despite having received religious exemptions.
The city said it was unable to provide accommodations for firefighters who were unvaccinated.
The affected firefighters argued they were treated unfairly because firefighters in surrounding areas received accommodations and responded to some of the same emergencies as SFD.
“Spokane Valley Fire Department, Spokane Fire District 9, District 8, District 10, everybody around us and all over the state were not only given exemptions, but accommodations that were very reasonable,” said Jhar Fuller, one of the 25 plaintiffs in the case against Woodwoord.
Fuller said all he ever wanted was to be a firefighter, so being let go came as quite a shock.
“It was just a huge sense of betrayal to have the whole rug of your life pulled out from underneath you all of a sudden,” he said.
Now that the vaccine mandate has ended, Fuller is back to working with SFD, but he is still waiting to see if justice is served to him and his 24 fellow plaintiffs.
“I mean the fire department, it’s all I’ve ever wanted… to be a fireman,” he said.
The original case was dismissed in 2022, but was just recently appealed by the 9th circuit. It will now be sent back to district court.
“Everybody is feeling a little sense of relief at the process moving forward because it’s been such a long wait,” Fuller said.
COPYRIGHT 2025 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
