July 4, 2020- We hope everyone enjoyed this past 4th of July with their friends and families. The Beachwood Fire Department answered calls for fires that started due to fireworks. We ARE NOT the “fun police” or “Karens” as this seems to be the new trendy word. We are dedicated volunteers who leave our homes and respond to your emergencies. We make this post to bring attention to an unfortunate incident that occurred on the 4th. At one of the calls we responded to, and arrived before the police, we were immediately met by hostile intoxicated subjects. The subjects wrongly believed we were on some sort of fireworks patrol and were there to ruin their fun. We tried to explain how volunteers work, but that was fruitless in trying to reason with intoxicated and ignorant people. This prompted some in the group to threaten and try to intimidate your volunteers in an effort to engage us in a physical altercation. They then sprayed your volunteer firefighters with a garden hose and attempted to spray water into our command vehicle. When the police arrived, it was determined that there was a neighbor dispute about the fireworks that prompted the fire call. We understand neighbor issues and everyone’s frustrations the past several months. However, threatening volunteer firefighters and spraying water in our faces is unacceptable. (Even if you think you pay our salaries as one grossly misinformed individual shouted at us). We cleared the scene leaving the matter to the police. Afterwards and during the past few days, our members have discussed the incident at length. We are not happy. We have identified two of the subjects and are working on the third. We are not only your dedicated volunteers, but we are your friends and neighbors. It bothers us that here we are contemplating signing complaints against the people we serve, but we can’t “turn the cheek” on this one. We can't have people tell us "our jaws will be wired shut". We can't have people assault us or interfere with our official function by obstruction or physical intimidation. We make this post because ignorant people love to bash volunteers so if it comes to it, and you read in one of our many local chat groups that we signed complaints against the subjects, there is a reason why.

We are NOT "Karens". We are thankful to our supporters and very appreciative of those who were respectful to us Saturday night. Thank you.