Massachusetts firefighter fired over racially charged Facebook post
Eric Bosco, SouthCoastToday.com:
A Freetown call firefighter has been removed from the force after the fire chief was alerted to a racist comment he made about an Assonet house, owned by a black family, where a house party drew more than 1,000 guests earlier this month.
“I can see the next fire call will be this house on fire and I’ll make sure I can’t find the hydrant lol,” Kyle Grenier, a volunteer, paid-by-call firefighter for the Freetown Fire Department for the past five years, posted in a June 22 Facebook conversation.
“Lol wait in fear the water might come out too fast,” a Facebook friend replied to Grenier’s reference to the June 18 house party at 18 Leonard Avenue that neighbors complained was out of control. After town police declined to shut down the party, which lasted until 4 a.m, Freetown selectmen and public safety officials held a special public discussion earlier this week.
His comments including remarks about Blacks and him saying that if he was called to the residence again he would make sure he couldn’t find the hydrant.
“It’s not only that they were racially sensitive they were also in regards to conduct of a firefighter and when he was saying that he would not put water on a fire and that kind of stuff,” said Silvia “and that’s really what alerted me.”
Silvia says he spoke previously with the 25-year-old Grenier about earlier comments on Facebook relating to fireworks.
“He’s young and I think a lot of time young folks, when they’re on Twitter and Facebook, they kind of lose track of what they’re doing and they just typing things out,” said Silvia “and they don’t realize it goes out in cyberspace, and everyone gets it.”
NECN:
Fire Chief Gary Silvia says he had no idea about the posts until necn brought it to his attention Thursday morning. After reviewing the comments, he took swift action.
“The town of Freetown and the fire department will not tolerate racism at all,” Silvia said. “I was shocked and saddened at the same time that he would do something like this.”
“I can see the next fire call will be this house on fire and I’ll make sure I can’t find the hydrant lol,” Grenier wrote. “Make sure no water so no more house party’s [sic] with black Boston people.”
