Exclusive: Former Savannah Firefighter Speaks Out

A story you will see only on News Three.

A former Savannah Firefighter is claiming she was discriminated against, and is speaking out.

The issue stems from pictures she placed on her MySpace page. In addition to work pictures she also had a picture of herself in a bathrobe.

Tiffany Marshall charges last March the Fire Chief only took action against her even though other firefighters, specifically male firefighters, had the same type of photos on MySpace.

So Marshall has filed a civil lawsuit against the City, the Fire Department, and the Chief.

"Someone essentially hacked into her website and discovered that on the private portion of her MySpace page there were photographs and there were those at the fire department that felt there were images of firefighters in gear next to personal images and somehow felt that was inappropriate," explains Marshall’s Lawyer Joe Steffen.

News Three's Community Reporter Alice Massimi first brought you this story last week-- today, she sat down with Marshall for an exclusive interview and joins us with more.

Tiffany Marshall says as a firefighter she has to work twice as hard to be treated as an equal. She doesn't mind it but what happened last March, she says crossed the line.

"As soon as I walked into the station, met the guys, saw the truck and the equipment, tried on the gear and stuff, I was like this is awesome."

A firefighter for more than five years, Tiffany says she loves her job, or what was her job. Last March she was fired from Savannah Fire. She says it started over pictures on her MySpace page.

"I asked if it was the content of the pictures and right then and there they stated no, it was not the content, just simply the fact that I had a fire department picture mixed in with personal pictures."

Shocked by their answer, Tiffany says she was willing to take some pictures down.

"If there was a problem with the picture, all they had to say was we really don't like this, can you go ahead and take it off, that wouldn't have been a problem."

Instead, she says, her superiors wanted her to name other firefighters who had similar content.

"Somehow they had access to my page, so I stated to them they could go back to my page and everybody that was a firefighter on my page was on the main page."

She says naming names was beyond what she was willing to do and according to court documents; she was then fired for being insubordinate.

“I have always wanted my job back, my heart is with Savannah Fire.”

The fire department says out of two hundred and ninety-two firefighters, only eight of them are women.

As far as the case goes, the Fire Department and the City of Savannah say because of the litigation, they have no comment on the case.

We were able to pull some of the city's testimony on the case from legal documents we obtained.

In those documents Chief Middleton is quoted as saying "her combative tone, the sharpness of her words and her disregard for my authority. I have never experienced with a subordinate to this extent during my thirty-three years of fire service. It was even more astounding since she was a probationary firefighter. "

According to a letter referenced in court documents, Assistant Chief Bragg wrote to Chief Middleton stating, "After further review and discussions I have decided due to the unpleasant discipline procedure process and attitude of Firefighter Tiffany Marshall to dismiss her from employment."