Groton — The volunteer company that owns the fire station on Fort Hill Road and leases it to the Poquonnock Bridge Fire District could break that lease if it wanted, a member of the company’s executive board said Monday.

Poquonnock Bridge Volunteer Fire Co. No. 1 Inc. has scheduled a special meeting to discuss the lease after its regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at 13 Fort Hill Road.

Carl A. Kiely, a member of the company’s executive board, said he couldn’t speculate on what might occur, but said it would be within the company’s right to break the lease. The station at Fort Hill Road is one of two in the Poquonnock Bridge Fire District. It was closed by the district board to save money. Now the board wants to use the station as a possible center for future volunteer firefighters.

Kiely said the fire district violated the lease in many ways, including by posting a banner to recruit volunteer firefighters earlier this month and attaching the banner with bolts and screws, damaging the front of the station.

Company members couldn’t get the banner down so they cut it down, and then returned it to the fire department’s remaining open station on Long Hill Road.

The president of the Poquonnock Bridge Fire District responded by filing a complaint with Groton Town Police.

The volunteer company opposes the district’s recruitment of volunteers because it had a system in place years ago, Kiely said. He said the department refused for years to train volunteers who showed up, then shut the company down by not allowing them to respond to fires. He said the company would not allow its station to be used for district volunteers now.

d.straszheim@theday.com

@DStraszheim