What’s wrong with this picture? Plenty. Firefighter’s widow wants blogger to do the right thing.
- UPDATE- The firefighter’s picture and the story have nothing to do with each other. Efforts by firefighters and FireEngineering.com have since had this image removed from the Australian blog.
Watch interview with Kristen Curry
UPDATE: Fire service online community gets image removed
Regular STATter911.com readers will likely recognize the man in the picture above. We have run the picture a number of times. He was John Curry, a Volusia County, Florida firefighter who was killed when a tree fell on him during a training accident in 2007.
A blogger in Australia apparently thinks it is okay to use this firefighter’s image to illustrate an unrelated news story that was posted on September 13. Not just any story mind you, but a story about an Australian firefighter who was sent to jail for 20 years after selling naked photos of his daughter and granddaughter.
Kristen Curry told WFTV-TV, “To link such a good man, honorable man, to pornography and rape is just awful.” I doubt there are many people who would disagree with her.
The blog is called Velociraptor on Zebra. It isn’t like the person running the blog doesn’t know that the person in the picture has nothing to do with the news story. The blogger wrote under the picture: “General picture of a fire-fighter not of the man himself. ”
Okay, nice disclaimer, but did you ever think about the person in the photo and how they might feel about their image illustrating a story about a sexual predator? Or in this case, how the relatives and friends of a fallen firefighter might feel?
The name of the person associated with the website is David Harris. If any of you know David Harris, you might want to contact him. Please let Harris know there’s a woman in Florida who is desperately trying to find him. She is also trying to hold on to an image that is dear to her.
