ATLANTA — The City of Atlanta Fire Rescue Department placed a firefighter on administrative leave Tuesday as the city investigates how racy photos were taken at a fire station.
Escorts used those photos online to advertise their services.
Assistant Fire Chief Todd Edwards says the firefighter is a lieutenant and a veteran of the department.
"This was an unfortunate incident, and again, we'll go through all the proper investigation and make sure there was nothing inappropriate at the time, and we'll go on from there," Edwards told Channel 2's Rikki Klaus.
Edwards would not reveal the firefighter's name but said he was in charge of Fire Station No. 2 on Jonesboro Road in southeast Atlanta at the time the photos were snapped.
Edwards says the firefighter will be on paid leave, pending the outcome of the investigation.
The main question is: who allowed the woman in to pose for the photos?
Some of the photos are too graphic to show. In the pictures, the women used public safety equipment as props.
"Being the highest-ranked person on duty at the time is why that person is the one that we're going to talk to the most at this time," Edwards said.
Channel 2's Matt Johnson spoke with several residents who say the photos don't sit well with them.
"It's not good for the city, the city's doing a good job," said Joe LaBoy.
"People pay money for you to be in a building working, to save people in case of fires, not having escorts," said Omkar Singh.
The assistant chief says the investigation will likely take a matter of days and no longer than two weeks to complete because the department wants to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
The Vice President of the Atlanta Professional Firefighters Association sent Klaus the following statement:
"The Atlanta Professional Firefighters Association is extremely disturbed by the pictures that were taken inside one of our firehouses. It is our understanding these inappropriate acts were not done by our firefighters, nor were our firefighters aware that the pictures were going to be placed on such an ad.
Most of our stations have on average 5 or 6 citizens' stop by each day. As public safety employees we are trained by the city to except citizens into our station regardless of their background.
It is our understanding that one of the girls claimed to be the daughter of a retired Firefighter from that station. They welcomed her into the station, just as any firefighter would do, and is expected to do by the city.
From our understanding at some point during the visit one of the firefighters noticed an inappropriate manner in which one of the visitors was posing for a picture. At that point the firefighter acted in accordance with AFRD policy 400.46 section 8.7 , and asked them to leave.
The fact that the Mayor said he was going to fire the person involved tells us there will not be a vigorous or consistent investigation. This is extremely irresponsible as an official to try to influence an internal investigation."
WSBTV
