IMMOKALEE, Fla. - A 45-year veteran firefighter was ousted as chief of the Immokalee Fire Department while he was away on vacation.

Ray Alvarez served as chief for 12 for years in Immokalee, but last night, three out of four fire commission members voted to fire him immediately. Two of the commissioners could not be reached for comment. The third would not speak about the incident to WINK News. Commissioner Ski Olesky was the only board member who voted to keep Alvarez.

"It was wrong what they did, the way they did it," says Olesky. "I mean if they wanted to do it they could do it when he was there, to me it was personal conflicts and not his job performance."

But, the president of Immokalee's Firefighters' Union says the Chief had every opportunity to speak.

"The chief knew the meeting was happening," says Union President Thomas Callahan. "I think it was his decision not to show."

WINK News caught up with Alvarez by phone in Alabama.

"Personally it's just their way of saying we're in charge because i didn't just go ahead and retire," says Alvarez.

The firefighters' union says there were reasons the chief was ousted including insufficient staffing and equipment. Firefighters also told WINK they were living in bad conditions with rat droppings and bugs.

"We sent the exterminators out there and they said they still had them, so we sent them out again," says Alvarez. "We were working on it, I guess it wasn't as fast as they wanted."

The Chief was not under contract, but will be paid until the end of the month.

The Fire Marshal will serve as Interim Chief while the board begins the process to find a permanent replacement for Chief Alvarez.