Macon's mayor Robert Reichert says Macon-Bibb firefighters who fail a test of basic firefighting skills may be fired. Reichert says if failing firefighters put the fire department's state certification at risk, there would be "no choice but to terminate those firefighters." Last month, the agency that regulates Georgia firefighters gave Macon-Bibb firefighters six months to train before being retested after a December 2007 test result showed that only 59 percent of 123 firefighters passed the skills test.
