‘Downright rude': Man claims FF’s social post after house fire was insensitive

By Leila Merrill

HOUSTON — A man claims that a social media post made by a responding firefighter to a house fire was unnecessary and insensitive, Click2Houston reported.

Mickey Reed’s childhood home caught fire around 5 a.m. Sunday, with eight of Reed’s family members inside, including his parents, all who managed to escape the blaze.

Later, a friend sent Reed a screenshot of a social media post by a Houston firefighter.

https://twitter.com/KPRC2/status/1490856676899135490

The image is of the home on fire and barbecue equipment in the yard, with the included caption, “Staying warm this morning. District 20.”

“Underneath, later in the comments, he posted about how tender the brisket must be. As I said, it’s adding insult to injury. In a matter of minutes, my family lost everything. And for this firefighter to be a representative of the city of Houston Fire Department and to post something like that was just out of line, uncalled for, unnecessary, and downright rude,” Reed said.

Reed said that he and other family members contacted the firefighter via Facebook and that the firefighter apologized and removed the post.

But Reed is speaking out so that similar incidents do not happen again.

“This is much bigger than just him because if he’s doing things like this, how many are? At no point was it ever a matter of ‘we want him fired or we want him reprimanded.’ We want him to understand that you need to take into account people’s feelings and consideration of what they’re going through and the tragedy they are going through,” said Reed.

The Houston Fire Department declined to comment on the incident.